Revive Therapeutics Explores the Use of Bucillamine for Long COVID

TORONTO, Feb. 01, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Revive Therapeutics Ltd. (“Revive” or the “Company”) (OTCQB: RVVTF) (CSE: RVV) (FRANKFURT:31R), a specialty life sciences company focused on the research and development of therapeutics for medical needs and rare disorders, announced today its initiative in Bucillamine, an oral thiol-based drug with anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties, as a potential treatment for long COVID. The Company aims to advance the clinical development of Bucillamine by leveraging the published research and existing data from its previous Phase 3 clinical trial (the “Study”) and is preparing a clinical package that includes a proposed Phase 2/3 clinical protocol for long COVID to present to the FDA and international health regulatory bodies.

The CDC estimates that 7.5 percent of U.S. adults have long COVID symptoms¹. David Cutler, PhD, a professor of economics at Harvard University, estimates in a recent research disclosure that the total economic cost of long COVID could be as much as $3.7 trillion².

On July 6, 2023, the Company announced the results of its Study evaluating the safety and efficacy of oral Bucillamine in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19. Under the Study’s primary endpoint, the proportion of patients meeting a composite endpoint of hospitalization or death from time of first dose through Day 28 following randomization, there were no deaths and four hospitalizations, of which three were from the placebo arm and one from the Bucillamine low dose group (300mg/day). No hospitalizations occurred in the Bucillamine large dose group (600mg/day). The Company also evaluated certain Study endpoints, including the COVID-19 clinical symptoms data (i.e. cough, fever, heart rate, and oxygen saturation). Based on preliminary analyses, the data demonstrated that for patients with oxygen saturation <96% at baseline, Bucillamine had a 29.1% improvement over placebo in time to normal oxygen saturation (SpO2).

A study titled “Thiol-based drugs decrease binding of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to its receptor and inhibit SARS-CoV-2 cell entry” showed that thiol-based drugs, like Bucillamine, decrease the binding of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to its receptor, decrease the entry efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 spike pseudotyped virus, and inhibit SARS-CoV-2 live virus infection. These findings uncovered a vulnerability of SARS-CoV-2 to thiol-based drugs and provided a rationale to test thiol-based drugs such as Bucillamine as a novel treatment for COVID-19.