BARDA to fund development of COVID preventive drug

The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) announced yesterday that it will give drugmaker Shionogi, Inc, $375 million to develop a drug to prevent COVID-19 infection in people who are immune compromised.

The drug is a long-acting formulation of S-892216, a protease inhibitor that blocks the main protease of SARS-CoV-2 and prevents the virus from making copies of itself in human cells. Designed for pre-exposure prophylaxis (prevention), it would be given to immune compromised people, who may not mount an adequate immune response to vaccines, before they’re exposed to the virus. 

Shionogi is receiving the funding from Project NextGen, a $5 billion program led by ASPR’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“At BARDA, we will be working with Shionogi to accelerate development of this preventative therapeutic to help protect vulnerable Americans,” BARDA Director Gary Disbrow, PhD, said in a press release.

Shionogi plans to file an Investigational New Drug application and begin phase 1 clinical trials this year.

CARB-X funds peptide antibiotic

In other drug-development news, CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator) announced yesterday that it is awarding $610,000 to Justus Liebig University Giessen in Germany to develop a first-in-class peptide antibiotic.

The money will help researchers at the university define a lead optimization path for a direct-acting peptide therapeutic that targets the BamA protein in gram-negative bacteria. BamA plays a critical role in building the outer membrane of gram-negative pathogens, which acts as a protective barrier by limiting the effectiveness of traditional antibiotics.

“Since BamA is involved in essential processes for the survival of a wide range of Gram-negative pathogens, an optimized peptide antibiotic targeting this protein could have broad-spectrum activity, with a potential for a lack of cross-resistance to current therapies,” Erin Duffy, PhD, chief of research and development at CARB-X, said in a press release.

With the award, CARB-X has now funded 108 early-stage projects designed to prevent, diagnose, and treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria.