Benzinga | Mar 23, 2021 08:47AM EDT

Omeros, Quantum Leap Announce First Patients Dosed With Narsoplimab IN I-SPY COVID-19 Trial

-- Adaptive Platform Trial is Evaluating Drugs and Investigational Products in the Treatment of Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients --

Omeros Corporation (NASDAQ:OMER) and Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative announced that dosing of patients with narsoplimab in the I-SPY COVID-19 Trial began earlier this month. The I-SPY COVID-19 Trial is an adaptive platform trial sponsored by Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative. The goal of the trial is to screen rapidly, in parallel, multiple promising agents in order to identify drugs that will have a high impact on reducing mortality and avoid or reduce the duration of mechanical ventilation for critically ill COVID-19 patients.

"We're excited that narsoplimab is one of the agents that has entered the I-SPY COVID-19 Trial," said Laura Esserman, MD, MBA, co-founder of Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative, Principal Investigator of the I-SPY trial program, and Professor of Surgery and Radiology at the University of California -- San Francisco. "The mechanism of action, specifically targeting endothelial injury, along with its safety profile and initial data generated in critically ill COVID-19 patients make a compelling case for this agent. The pulmonary and critical care investigators leading the I-SPY COVID Trial uniformly endorsed narsoplimab and made it a high-priority candidate for the trial. Together, we will be able to generate data on the ability of the agent to reduce the time to recovery and lower mortality."

Narsoplimab is Omeros' lead antibody targeting mannan-binding lectin-associated serine protease-2 (MASP-2), the effector enzyme of the lectin pathway of complement. It is the only complement inhibitor invited to participate in the I-SPY COVID-19 Trial. Narsoplimab has been administered under compassionate use to treat severely ill COVID-19 patients requiring mechanical ventilation, with impressive outcomes.

"Omeros is pleased to be working with Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative in this important effort," said Gregory Demopulos, MD, Omeros' chairman and chief executive officer. "With the multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2 already spreading globally, it is clear that vaccines alone likely will not be sufficient. Drs. Esserman, Calfee, and Liu and their team have established an innovative, efficient and rapidly enrolling platform trial to help identify treatments that can be useful in the fight against COVID-19, and we look forward to learning the outcomes of I-SPY study patients treated with narsoplimab."