Equillium Explodes 260% On Positive Covid-19 Results; India Approvalsupport@smarteranalyst.com (Ben Mahaney),SmarterAnalystJuly 13, 2020Shares in biotech Equillium (EQ) have almost tripled in Monday’s pre-market trading after the company announced that a clinical trial conducted in India by its partner Biocon demonstrated that itolizumab significantly reduced mortality in patients hospitalized with COVID-19.[淘股吧]
Equillium is currently developing itolizumab to treat severe autoimmune and inflammatory disorders. The stock is currently trading up 260% in the pre-market.
Biocon also announced that the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has granted restricted emergency use of itolizumab for the treatment of cytokine release syndrome (CRS) in COVID-19 patients with moderate to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in India.
Based on the encouraging topline results and DCGI approval, Equillium revealed that it is now planning to conduct a global randomized controlled clinical trial of itolizumab in COVID-19 patients for which it will file a U.S. investigational new drug application (IND).
Biocon conducted a randomized, controlled, open-label study at four hospitals in India, enrolling a total of 30 hospitalized COVID-19 patients with moderate to severe ARDS. Twenty patients were randomized to receive itolizumab plus best supportive care, while 10 patients received best supportive care alone. The primary endpoint was mortality at one month.
As reported by Biocon:
In the itolizumab arm there were no deaths and all patients have recovered; in the control arm three patients died and the remainder have recoveredThe mortality benefit observed in the itolizumab arm was statistically significantConsistent with the observed clinical improvement, patients who received itolizumab also experienced significant reductions in inflammatory cytokines“The results of this clinical trial reported by Biocon are encouraging and support the hypothesis that itolizumab’s novel immune-modulating mechanism may have promise in addressing the severe immuno-inflammatory complications experienced by COVID-19 patients,” said Bruce Steel, CEO of Equillium.
Itolizumab is a first-in-class immune-modulating antibody therapeutic with a novel mechanism of action that inhibits the activity and trafficking of