Innovation Pharma’s COVID-19 Drug Candidate Brilacidin Ranked in Top Three Percent of Compounds Predicted to Be Most Effective Against SARS-CoV-2

WAKEFIELD, Mass., March 10, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Innovation Pharmaceuticals (OTCQB:IPIX) (“the Company”), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, is pleased to report today that a Machine Learning (Artificial Intelligence) model used to screen 1,482 compounds ranked Brilacidin in the top three percent of compounds predicted to be the most effective against SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19. Published in Bioinformatics, by Oxford University Press, the Machine Learning ranking is based on a compound’s predicted ability, due to its physicochemical properties, to bind to coronavirus proteins and thus inhibit viral replication. The predictive framework used in this research was built by assessing the structure of the main proteins of almost 100 different viral organisms, making the model generalizable to multiple viruses, according to the study’s authors.

The Company is highly encouraged by this independent research suggesting Brilacidin may be one of the best drug candidates capable of attacking and destroying SARS-CoV-2 variants and other coronaviruses, while mitigating or averting the threat of drug resistance developing.

The world has recently seen several clinical trial failures of highly touted treatments against the backdrop of new highly contagious and more virulent COVID-19 variants emerging, including the P1 strain in Brazil. P1, which has been proven extremely adept at re-infecting people, has quickly resulted in Brazilian hospitals being overwhelmed by a deluge of new and repeat cases. This situation has given rise to fears that P1 could cause similar outbreaks should it become widespread in other countries, as reported in yesterday’s Washington Post in an article titled, “Brazil’s growing coronavirus outbreak poses a threat far beyond its borders.”

As described by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, in a recent White House briefing, new variants are “a very real threat to our people and our progress,” with the spread of highly contagious coronavirus variants threatening to fuel a "potential fourth surge of cases.” This further lends to the urgency to expeditiously develop novel, broad spectrum antiviral medications to combat the pandemic plaguing the planet for over one year now.