(Alliance News) - Tiziana Life Sciences PLC on Monday announced the completion of its clinical trial for nasally administered Foralumab, its proprietary human monoclonal antibody, that has been given to Brazilian patients with Covid-19.
The London-based biotechnology company said the study was in collaboration with teams at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA, Santa Casa de Misericordia de Santos Hospital in Santos, Brazil and Intrials, a full-service Latin American contract research organisation based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Shares in Tiziana were 11% at 101.90 pence in London on Monday.
Tiziana said it was the first trial to focus on the nasal delivery of Foralumab to patients due to the knowledge that Covid-19 enters the body through the nasal and respiratory passage, and saw that it provided "immediate relief to Covid-19 patients" in the trial, who received their final dose on December 21, 2020.
Thais Moreira, lead scientist and coordinator of the trial, added that the most common positive result patients reported was the rapid improvement in smell sensation, which is frequently lost in Covid-19 patients.
The topline data from the trial is expected to be available this month.
Chief Executive Kunwar Shailubhai said: "We believe this approach could potentially provide benefits to patients already infected with Covid-19 and its newly identified variants. Thus, our therapeutic approach to provide rapid relief to patients already suffering with the diseases is particularly important, because vaccination is primarily to prevent Covid-19 infection, but it may not be useful for treatment of Covid-19 patients.
By Zoe Wickens; zoewickens@alliancenews.com
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