Millions in funding for new therapy against Covid-19
The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has announced the winners in the competition for new therapies against Covid-19. At the forefront is the joint project of rnatics, a spin-off of the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and ISAR Bioscience.
The project aims to effectively combat inflammation of the lungs triggered by coronaviruses. To this end, novel molecules have been developed that can be used to specifically reduce the activity of certain macrophages in the lungs.
The BMBF will fund the project with almost seven million euros. ISAR Bioscience has been involved in the project since 2020 and will contribute about one million euros to the project over the funding period. The first task will be to complete studies on the safety of the novel drug. Subsequently, a first clinical trial with Covid-19 patients will be conducted. In August 2021, the responsible regulatory authority, the German Federal Office for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM), had cleared the way for the completion of preclinical development and for initial clinical trials (phase 1a/b).
“We are very pleased with the success in the competition for new Covid therapies. This shows that the founding idea of ISAR Bioscience is successful: to accompany projects from basic science to spin-offs”, says Professor Martin Lohse, CEO of the Bavarian research company. “Based on many years of work by our cooperation partner, Prof. Stefan Engelhardt, at the Universities of Würzburg and TUM, a completely novel therapy for Covid-19, but possibly also for other lung diseases, is now about to enter clinical trials. We at ISAR Bioscience are enthusiastically participating in the further development of this promising therapeutic concept.”
rnatics: https://www.isarbioscience.de/en/rnatics/
Technical University of Munich: https://www.isarbioscience.de/en/technical-university-munich/
