UK Company Starts Trials of Inhaled Formulation for COVID-19

Synairgen, a respiratory drug discovery and development company, has announced in a March 18, 2020 press release, that it has received expedited approvals to conduct a trial of its inhaled formulation of interferon-beta-1a, SNG001, in COVID-19 patients.

SNG001 is a formulation of interferon-beta-1a that is administered directly into the lungs via nebulization. The expedited approvals from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Health Research Authority (HRA) will allow Synairgen to commence a Phase II clinical trial in COVID-19 patients across a number of National Health Service trusts imminently.

“We have worked intensively with the relevant authorities and collaborators to enable SNG001 to be assessed in COVID-19 patients,” said Richard Marsden, CEO of Synairgen in the press release. “SNG001 has been well tolerated in clinical trials in over 200 respiratory patients to date and has accelerated lung function recovery in two Phase II asthma trials in patients with a cold or flu infection. A successful outcome from this trial in COVID-19 patients would be a major breakthrough in the fight against this coronavirus pandemic.” 

“We are facing an unprecedented health challenge with COVID-19 which desperately requires the rapid development of new therapeutic strategies. There are a limited number of candidate new treatments available and so it is vital we can rapidly generate high quality evidence on the role of these in COVID-19 patients,” added Tom Wilkinson, professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Southampton and trial chief investigator, in the press release. “The UK [United Kingdom] research delivery and regulatory teams have worked incredibly effectively to enable this world leading trial to achieve approvals so rapidly, which has enabled our motivated and highly expert team of researchers to get this vital study running straight away.”