Humanetics Corporation has expanded its clinical trial of a new oral drug, BIO 300, for long-haul Covid-19 (long Covid) to include two more US study sites.
Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, New York and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in the US are new the sites that are currently enrolling subjects.
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These centres add to current clinical sites at NYU Langone and the Houston Methodist Research Institute.
The trial will analyse BIO 300’s ability to alleviate long-term pulmonary damage in subjects who have survived Covid-19.
Funded by the National Institutes of Health unit National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the trial will compare the lung function, exercise capacity and quality of life of trial subjects who will be given either BIO 300 or a placebo.
BIO 300 can be self-administered by the patients daily for 12 weeks after hospital discharge.
Humanetics Research vice-president Michael Kaytor said: “We don’t fully understand the long-term effects of Covid-19 and are concerned that discharged patients will continue to suffer respiratory complications.
“Most attention thus far has been on treating the acute phase of Covid-19 and now attention is being shifted to the long-term effects of the initial infection.”
BIO 300 is being developed as a medical countermeasure for protecting the body from the harmful effects of ionising radiation.
US Department of Defense scientist discovered it while working on radioprotective therapies for the military.
Humanetics further broadened the drug’s applications in cancer radiation therapy and concluded a trial in lung cancer patients who develop pulmonary injury linked to radiation therapies.
Normal lung tissue injury caused by radiation in cancer patients is identical to lung injury caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The company claimed that BIO 300 was found to alleviate radiation-induced lung inflammation and pulmonary fibrosis and believes that the same can be demonstrated in Covid-19 patients.
In July 2020, the company obtained NIAID funds to evaluate BIO 300 in a trial for Covid-19.
