BiondVax Pharmaceuticals announced that 6 days post infection, hamsters treated with the company’s NanoAb inhaled nanosized antibodies had levels of SARS-COV-2 in their lungs reduced to levels 30 times lower than hamsters that got an inhaled placebo. BiondVax licensed the NanoAb technology from the Max Planck Institute in March 2022 and announced development plans for NanoAb in June 2022. The company says that it expects to initiate a Phase 1/2a trial by the end of 2023 and is planning to scale up manufacturing at its Jerusalem facility to produce materials for that trial.
According to BiondVax, hamsters in the preclinical study received either inhaled NanoAb or inhaled placebo 24 hours post infection and at 6 days post infection, the viral titers in the hamsters treated with NanoAb were not only significantly lower than those of hamsters that got a placebo, the amount of virus remaining in the lungs was barely detectable. BiondVax said that the preclinical studies, conducted by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine (ITEM) and The University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, are ongoing.
BiondVax Chief Science Officer Tamar Ben-Yedidia commented, “These lung viral titer results indicate that our inhaled NanoAbs essentially eliminated viral presence in the lungs, and led to a shorter and milder illness. This data is unequivocal and exciting. We’re looking forward to continuing this study this month by testing additional dose levels of the inhaled NanoAb therapy and as a prophylactic (preventive) treatment. Results of the trial will inform design of the first-in-human clinical trial of the inhaled NanoAb COVID-19 therapy, which is planned for late 2023.”
CEO Amir Reichman said, “We are thrilled with the results of this ongoing trial. This study is not only a proof-of-concept for the inhaled COVID-19 NanoAb, but also lights the way to development of a larger NanoAb pipeline. The current Omicron outbreak in China has demonstrated that continuous development of innovative and safe therapeutics for COVID-19 is the more effective and economical way to contain this disease. Having a self-administered inhaled therapeutic for those already infected that may also be used as prophylactic prevention for those at risk will address current unmet needs, potentially bring massive relief to global public health, and save millions of lives going forward. I’m proud of the BiondVax team who are scaling-up in-house manufacturing of the NanoAbs and are already beginning to prepare for the next NanoAbs as therapies for other underserved medical conditions such as psoriasis and asthma.”
Read the BiondVax press release.
