Cocrystal Pharma Presentation at the reimagine Health Research Symposium Features Overview of Platform Technology and Four Antiviral Case Studies

BOTHELL, Wash., Jan. 21, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cocrystal Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: COCP), (“Cocrystal” or the “Company”), a clinical-stage biotechnology company discovering and developing novel antiviral therapeutics that target the replication machinery of influenza viruses, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, hepatitis C viruses and noroviruses, provides the following summary of today’s upcoming presentation by Cocrystal President Sam Lee, Ph.D. at the virtual 3^rd Annual reimagine Health Research Symposium, University of Arizona College of Medicine. A live webcast of Dr. Lee’s presentation, titled “Application of Structure-Based Drug Design Platform Technology for Developing Broad Spectrum, COVID-19, Influenza, and HCV Antivirals,” will be available at 9:50 a.m. Pacific time (12:50 p.m. Eastern time) by registering here. Dr. Lee’s presentation will be available on the Cocrystal website here beginning Friday, January 22, 2021.

Dr. Lee will provide an overview of the Company’s drug discovery platform technology, including its unique ability to develop broad-spectrum antiviral therapeutics and its advantages compared with the traditional drug discovery and development process. He will emphasize that the technology platform focuses on well-validated antiviral drug targets and review four case studies on the following compounds:

• CC-31244, a pan-genotypic hepatitis C virus (HCV) non-nucleoside inhibitor that has shown superior activity against all known HCV drug-resistant polymerases, exhibits a high barrier to drug resistance and has successfully completed a Phase 2a clinical trial;
• Pan-genotypic HCV inhibitors bind to a highly conserved CBP-1 binding pocket of HCV NS3 helicase and inhibit the viral replication;
• CC-42344, a broad-spectrum pandemic and seasonal influenza A inhibitor that binds to the highly conserved m7GTP binding pocket of PB2, has exhibited a favorable preclinical safety profile and pharmacokinetic properties, and is expected to enter into Phase 1 clinical trials in 2021; and
• SARS-CoV-2 direct-acting antiviral 3CL (or main) protease inhibitor is in preclinical development for the treatment of COVID-19.

“The traditional route for drug discovery and development requires target identification and validation, making for a slow process with a high rate of attrition,” said Dr. Lee. “Cocrystal’s unique platform technology has the ability to provide 3D structures of inhibitor protein complexes at near-atomic resolution, allowing us to identify novel drug-binding pockets essential for viral replication and transcription. We then design and develop broad-spectrum viral inhibitors that have the added benefit of providing a high-barrier to drug resistance.