According to the Viennese company, 20% of hospitalised patients with COVID-19 suffer from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a potentially life-threatening complication of infection with SARS-CoV-2. Official numbers indicate that about 6% of all infected patients are in critical stage an must be advised to a critical care unit (ICU) for the management of sepsis-like disease symptoms in ARDS patients.

APEPTICO Forschung und Entwicklung GmbH, as part of the EU-funded solnatide consortium, will accelerate clinical development of APEPTICO’s proprietary cyclic peptide solnatide to treat late-stage COVID-19 patients in order to prevent bad outcomes. The company’s Phase II lead compound, solnatide (AP-301) is currently being developed for the treatment of various forms of life-threatening acute pulmonary dysfunction and pulmonary oedema in ARDS patients. AP-301 is a nebulised inhibitor of sodium channels of the lung epithelium and blocked p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase signalling and NLRP3 inflammasome  activation in animal models.

Inhaled solnatide has passed Phase I safety testing and two Phase II trials, one in mechanically-ventilated ARDS patients with lung oedema, the other a randomized, placebo-controlled pilot study in patients suffering from primary graft dysfunction (PGD) following lung transplantation. According to the company, currently no medicine has been approved specifically for the therapeutic treatment of pulmonary permeability oedema or ARDS.

Commenting on the EU Grant Agreement, Bernhard Fischer, CEO of APEPTICO, stated: “We are very happy that the European Commission agreed with APEPTICO and the “solnatide-consortium” to financially support us in the consortium’s effort to make solnatide IMP available for the treatment of severely affected patients with the new coronavirus.”