Benzinga | Sep 30, 2021 09:34AM EDT

Atossa Therapeutics Begins Enrollment In Clinical Study Of AT-H201 In Australia

Atossa Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATOS), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company seeking to discover and develop innovative medicines in areas of significant unmet medical need in oncology and infectious diseases with a current focus on breast cancer and COVID-19, today announces it has begun to enroll participants in its clinical study of AT-H201 in Australia. The nebulized formulation, AT-H201, is being developed as an inhalation therapy for moderately to severely-ill hospitalized COVID-19 patients and for "long-haul" patients with post-infection pulmonary disease.

"Even with vaccines becoming widely available, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be an urgent global health crisis," said Steven Quay, M.D., Ph.D., Atossa's CEO and President. "Enrolling the first two participants in this study marks a significant milestone in our goal of ultimately developing nebulized AT-H201 to improve lung function in patients with active disease, which may reduce the number of patients requiring ventilators, and in 'long-haul' patients who have residual pulmonary function damage. Up to one third of hospitalized patients have pulmonary function changes 60 days or more after recovering from COVID. The portability of nebulizers, already routinely used for other chronic lung disease, should allow for treatment at home."



The Phase 1/2a placebo-controlled study will enroll a total of 60 healthy participants and moderately-ill hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The study has 4 parts: a single ascending dose part, a multiple ascending dose part, a combination part in healthy individuals, and subject to additional regulatory approval a combination in COVID-19 infected patients. The study is being conducted by Avance Clinical Pty Ltd., a leading Australian clinical research organization.



AT-H201 is a proprietary combination of two drugs previously approved by the FDA to treat other diseases and by other administration routes. AT-H201 is intended to be inhaled via a nebulizer to improve compromised lung function for moderate to severely ill, hospitalized COVID-19 patients and for "long-haul" patients with post-infection pulmonary disease. In May 2020, we completed in vitro testing of AT-H201 which showed that the components of AT-H201 inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infectivity of VERO cells, which is a standard cell type being used to study infectivity of the coronavirus. The AT-H201 components were found to be at least four times more potent than Remdesivir and at least 20 times more potent than Hydroxychloroquine. Potency was measured by microscopic examination of the cytopathic effect caused by SARS-CoV-2 in VERO cells.



The Phase 1/2a study in Australia and other clinical studies must be successfully completed and regulatory approvals must be obtained before AT-H201 may be commercialized. No assurance can be given that studies will be successful or that regulatory approvals will be obtained.