CytoDyn Reports Strong Results from eIND COVID-19 Patients Treated with Leronlimab; Majority of Patients Have Demonstrated Remarkable Recoveries
54 eINDs approved by FDA and 49 patients have been treated with leronlimab thus far
VANCOUVER, Washington, April 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CytoDyn Inc. (CYDY), (“CytoDyn” or the “Company"), a late-stage biotechnology company developing leronlimab (PRO 140), a CCR5 antagonist with the potential for multiple therapeutic indications, today announced updates on 49 COVID-19 patients who have received leronlimab under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) emergency Investigational New Drug (eIND) program:
Eleven (11) Patients in NY hospital: All treated patients were in Intensive Care Units (ICU) because of acute respiratory failure, eight of whom were intubated (placed on mechanical ventilation). One patient was not intubated because of poor baseline pulmonary status (history of lung cancer and had undergone bilateral upper lobectomy). Seven patients were organ-transplant recipients (six patients were renal-transplant recipients and one patient had a history of heart transplant) and were on immunosuppressive regimen. Ten patients were on dialysis and nine were on vasopressors during hospitalization. Despite their pre-existing and severe conditions, we believe we were able to save the lives of four patients. All patient blood samples were evaluated and important powerful results from the effect of leronlimab were demonstrated in almost all of these patients. This data has been submitted to a prestigious journal and we expect the publication on Friday, May 1.
Twenty-three (23) patients in Southern California hospital: Six patients were in critical condition (intubated) and 17 patients were severely-ill, needing oxygen support. No death was reported. Out of 6 critical patients, all were intubated patients, 3 were extubated (taken off ventilator), 2 patients remain relatively stable and still breathing with the assistance of a ventilator and one patient has shown deterioration in respiratory parameters. Of 17 severe condition (but not critical) patients, 11 patients demonstrated improvement in respiratory parameters (8 of them were discharged from hospital, including one patient in the news, Samantha Mottet), 2 patients remain relatively stable, 2 have shown deterioration in respiratory parameters and information is pending for 2 recently treated patients.
Three (3) patients in Georgia hospital: All three ICU patients were intubated and two of them had renal failure at the start of leronlimab treatment. Of these 3 patients, 2 were extubated (taken off ventilator) and 1 patient remains on a ventilator but improving.
One (1) patient in another NY hospital: Patient was taken off oxygen and discharged from hospital after leronlimab treatment.
One (1) patient in Northern California hospital: Patient is now weaning from ventilator and transferred to rehabilitation hospital.
Updates are pending for 10 other patients. Five additional patients have been approved to receive leronlimab under eINDs, which increases the total eINDs approved by the FDA to 54 patients.
Bruce Patterson, M.D., Chief Executive Officer and founder of IncellDx, a diagnostics company and an advisor to CytoDyn, expanded on these findings by stating, “We are excited that patients are responding extremely well to leronlimab as expected from the novel mechanism of COVID-19 pathogenesis we discovered and will be reporting in the coming days.”
Nader Pourhassan, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of CytoDyn said, “We believe these results, although anecdotal, are very impressive and the number of patients treated under eIND is rapidly increasing. The enrollment for our Phase 2 double-blind and Phase 2b/3 trials is moving along rapidly and we believe the results from both studies will be very powerful due to the mechanism of action (MOA) of affecting the viral load and restoring the immune system. With our first major paper very close to publication, we expect to have a second paper published shortly thereafter, as our MOA is as unique as our results.”