Benzinga | Jun 21, 2021 07:04AM EDT

Enochian BioSciences Announces Acquisition of Exclusive License for Potential Pan-Coronavirus and Pan-Influenza Inhaled Treatment and Prevention Technology

Enochian BioSciences, Inc., a company focused on gene-modified cellular and immune therapies in infectious diseases and cancer, today announced that the company has acquired an exclusive license for an innovative technology to potentially treat and prevent all variants of coronavirus, including the cause of COVID-19, as well as influenza. A request for a Pre-Investigator New Drug meeting for the COVID-19 treatment will be submitted to the FDA in the near term.

The novel approach, developed by Dr. Serhat Gumruk?u, tricks the viruses to trigger the cells it infects to commit suicide instead of becoming a virus-making factory. The technology is delivered by a nanoparticle, allowing it to either rapidly treat an infection or to wait in ambush for a cell to become infected to prevent (prophylaxis, similar to taking drugs to protect from becoming infected with malaria or HIV) future infections. Because target cells of the viruses live up to 20 months in human airways, it is possible that a single inhalation could both rapidly treat and protect against infection for relatively long periods of time. The part of the virus that is tricked is similar in all variants of SARS-CoV-2 as well as other coronaviruses that cause disease in humans, including approximately 20 percent of common colds. In addition, all pandemic influenza viruses since 1918 have a similar region as that targeted by this technology.

Dr. Mark Dybul, a prominent expert in HIV and Executive Vice Chairperson of the Board of Enochian BioSciences, said, "The current COVID-19 variants are concerning. With the slow rollout of vaccines globally, there is a high risk of new mutations that will entirely escape the effectiveness of current vaccines. In addition, there are no currently available treatments that are easy to use and treat all variants. This novel technology potentially offers hope to help stop this pandemic as well as to prevent future coronavirus and influenza pandemics."

Dr. Gumruk?u is a co-founder and inventor of Enochian BioSciences, and Director of Seraph Research Institute (SRI). He previously presented the initial SARS-CoV-2 findings at two prestigious scientific conferences. In March 2021, the SARS-CoV-2 data was presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic infections, and in 2020, the influenza data was presented at the Conference of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy. Presentations can be found at: https://www.enochianbio.com/investors-media/events-and-presentations/.