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A Cheshire biotech company is developing another drug to treat COVID-19.
Infex Therapeutics, headquartered in Alderley Park, is driving a key development in its pandemic resilience strategy by announcing an agreement with the CRUK Newcastle Drug Discovery Unit.
A new type of therapy for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 together with future variants and a wide range of coronaviruses is thus licensed.
The PAN-X program is an early-stage drug that has shown encouraging activity in in vitro testing.
It was developed by a team led by Prof Mike Waring, Prof Steve Wedge and Prof Martin Noble from the CRUK Newcastle Drug Discovery Unit at Newcastle University. Her achievements to date include key roles in the discovery of breakthrough drugs for lung cancer.
Dr. Peter Jackson, Executive Director of Infex Therapeutics, said, “This is a key program for us to develop our pipeline of infectious disease control therapies and builds on our work already focused on pandemic resilience.
“There is great interest in finding drugs that can be used both to treat infected patients, to avoid or reduce hospital stays, and as preventive therapy.”
He added: “We believe PAN-X has the potential to be a first line of defense, to buy time to enable the manufacture of a bespoke vaccine and to significantly reduce health risks when used as a precautionary measure to vulnerable groups such as the elderly is administered. immunocompromised people and medical personnel.
“Our team is well positioned to build on the world-class science of the CRUK Newcastle team and we look forward to advancing PAN-X.”
Prof. Mike Waring, CRUK Newcastle Drug Discovery Unit at Newcastle University, said, “We are delighted that Infex has seized this opportunity, which has the potential to translate our first discoveries into a treatment that could be used for COVID-19 and “Future Coronavirus Threats.
“We look forward to working with them in the future and, above all, are contributing to global efforts to respond better to coronavirus pandemics.”
The PAN-X program is supported by the hits-to-leads program within iiCON, the infectious disease innovation consortium led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and supported by the Strength in Places Fund.