Inhalon Biopharma has announced the publication of two articles that present data from preclinical studies of the company’s inhaled “muco-trapping” technologies. The first, published in the journal Advanced Science, describes a study of nebulized delivery of Inhalon’s Mota-MT antibody to the lungs of nonatal lambs infected with RSV. The second article, published in Bioengineering and Translational Medicine, describes a study involving nasal delivery of “a muco-trapping ACE2-(G4S)6-FC decoy that binds and neutralizes SARS-CoV-2, without risk of viral escape” to hamsters infected with SARS-CoV-2.
The Advanced Science article reports that daily treatment of lambs with inhaled Mota-MT starting 3 days post-infection reduced viral load by as much as 100,000-fold compared to placebo. According to Inhalon, no detectable virus was left in the majority of lambs treated with the antibody, and damage to the lung was significantly reduced. The company says that it expects to begin a Phase 1 clinical trial of a “derivative of Mota-MT” later this year.
The Bioengineering and Translational Medicine study found that intranasal delivery of “a muco-trapping ACE2-(G4S)6-FC decoy that binds and neutralizes SARS-CoV-2, without risk of viral escape” reduced viral load in the noses of infected hamsters by a minimum of 10-fold by day 4, even when dosing began 2 days-post infection. Inhalon’s development of IN-007 against SARS-CoV-2 is partially funded by the US Army Medical Research and Development Command. The company says that it expects to begin clinical development of this therapy in 2025.
Inhalon Biopharma President and CEO John Whelan commented, “Inhalon’s approach rethinks the use of antibodies for the treatment of acute respiratory infections by delivering antibodies directly to the site of the infection. Our studies in Advanced Science and in Bioengineering and Translational Medicine demonstrate the exceptional effectiveness of our inhaled antibody platform, which offers the potential to treat a wide array of acute respiratory infections. With the results from these studies, we are advancing candidates against RSV and all variants of SARS-CoV-2 into the clinic.”
Read the Inhalon press release.
