Allarity Therapeutics to test activity of its PARP inhibitor, stenoparib, as a potential therapy for new highly infectious Strain B.1.1.7 of Coronavirus

Press Release

Hørsholm, Denmark (26 January 2021) – Allarity Therapeutics A/S (“Allarity” or the “Company”) today announced plans to further test the antiviral activity of stenoparib, its PARP inhibitor, against SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7, also known as Coronavirus Variant B117 (the “British variant”), at the Pathogen and Microbiome Institute at Northern Arizona University (NAU).

The virus variant was labelled “Variant of Concern 202012/01” by Public Health England (PHE), an agency of the UK Department of Health & Social Care, in a publication on 21 December 2020, after it was found to have spread rapidly within the UK, and the PHE assessed that this variant has a substantially increased transmissibility compared with other Coronavirus variants. This variant has also been identified in the U.S. in several states.

Based on the previous positive pre-clinical test results with stenoparib as a treatment of SARS-CoV-2, announced on 26 August 2020, Allarity Therapeutics will now test the similar ability of stenoparib to block the infection and replication of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7. The tests will be conducted at the Pathogen and Microbiome Institute, a leading U.S. infectious disease test center.

The previous series of pre-clinical studies, for SARS-CoV-2, with results first announced on 26 August 2020, have since been published in the peer-review journal mBio (mbio.asm.org) on 19 January 2021. The data show that stenoparib inhibits SARS-CoV-2 as a single agent. In addition, stenoparib in combination with remdesivir was active in inhibiting coronavirus in vitro. The concentration of stenoparib required for virus inhibition was lower in the combination study than in the single agent study. The two drugs target the virus through unique but different mechanisms of action.

Stenoparib (formerly 2X-121, E7449) is a small molecule, targeted inhibitor of Poly ADP-Ribose Polymerase (PARP), a key DNA damage repair enzyme active in tumors, which was originally developed by the pharmaceutical company Eisai. Besides investigating whether stenoparib has therapeutic potential as a possible treatment of SARS-CoV-2 and the British variant (lineage B.1.1.7), Allarity Therapeutics is also currently evaluating stenoparib for the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer in a Phase 2 clinical trial at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, MA U.S.A.) using a DRP companion diagnostic to guide patient enrollment and improve therapeutic outcome.