Destiny Pharma and SporeGen have agreed to co-develop a bacillus nasal spray as a prophylactic for prevention of COVID-19, with much of the project cost covered by an £800,000 grant from Innovate UK. Pan Group subsidiary Huro will develop and manufacture the formulation, and the companies say that they expect to begin clinical trials by early 2022.
Preclinical studies of the nasal spray, SPOR‑COV, will be conducted by Aras Kadioglu at the University of Liverpool. According to the companies, previous preclinical studies of SPOR-COV have demonstrated 100% protection against influenza.
SporeGen CEO Simon Cutting commented, “The SPOR-COV platform has already been shown to be effective against pandemic flu by targeting the innate immune system. As such, SPOR-COV potentially has value as a universal system for combatting other viral diseases such as COVID-19. If successful, we foresee a novel approach against COVID-19 and for future, similar pandemics. The SPOR-COV approach, unlike traditional vaccination, focuses on innate immunity and may not be impaired by new mutational variants. A further attribute of SPOR-COV is that it can be produced and stockpiled with ease and does not require a cold-chain. Prima facie our approach is simple and offers a potential new approach in the fight against one of the most serious diseases to afflict mankind.”
Destiny Pharma CEO Neil Clark added, “We are excited to announce the collaboration with SporeGen to co-develop their SPOR-COV product to prevent COVID-19 infections and the concurrent award of significant grant funding from Innovate UK. We are also pleased to be working with Professor Kadioglu at the University of Liverpool who has world class virology expertise. Destiny Pharma is committed to building a novel pipeline targeted at preventing infections and is very pleased to now be working with partners on the SPOR-COV project alongside our existing in-house XF platform. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has highlighted powerfully the need for innovation in developing new treatments to prevent and manage both viral and bacterial infections and Destiny Pharma remains committed to developing cost-effective products that meet this medical need.”
Read the Destiny Pharma and SporeGen press release.
