Akari Therapeutics Reports Continued Progress In COVID-19 Pneumonia Program With Nomacopan

(RTTNews) - Akari Therapeutics, Plc (AKTX) on Tuesday announced further progress in its COVID-19 pneumonia program with nomacopan in the U.S. and Brazil.

The company noted that COVID-19 pneumonia is believed to be a major cause of death in patients with COVID-19 and despite improvements in standard of care, remains difficult to treat.

Clive Richardson, Chief Executive Officer of Akari Therapeutics said, "We are pleased to be able to report continued progress with our COVID-19 pneumonia program. In addition to its potential to treat COVID-19 pneumonia, we believe nomacopan's dual complement and leukotriene inhibition has applicability in a range of other severe lung inflammatory conditions which we are exploring and like COVID-pneumonia have proven difficult to treat due to the involvement of multiple inflammatory pathways."

Data from several clinical studies in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia have shown the key role of complement C5a and C5b9 as well as neutrophil accumulation in the lung lead to severe inflammation and dramatic reductions in the delivery of blood through the capillary bed of the lung and ultimately other organs.

Nomacopan has been shown to inhibit all these pathways directly, according to Akari Therapeutics.

The company's initial proof of principle studies have showed that the 45mg standard dose of nomacopan can be used to treat patients with COVID-19 pneumonia without the requirement for up-dosing. The studies showed rapid onset of action of nomacopan, as well as no reported adverse safety signals in this fragile patient group.

Both studies in the U.S. and Brazil are double blind randomized clinical studies (2:1 in favor of nomacopan treatment) of over 60 patients each, with a primary endpoint of time to oxygen normalization and hospital discharge. The secondary endpoints will include the need for intubation and mortality.

Patients will receive either a daily subcutaneous dose of nomacopan and standard of care or placebo and standard of care. Treatment is for up to 14 days, with study monitoring and completion after two months.

Akari Therapeutics said it has been invited to present an update on its COVID-19 pneumonia program at the 4th Annual Complement-Based Drug Development Summit 2020 on October 15, 2020.