Wintermute Covid treatment for further US development

Biopharmaceutical company Wintermute Biomedical has had its novel Covid-19 therapy included in the US Biden administration’s $3 billion whole of government program with a focus on accelerated development of next generation COVID-19 treatments.

Melbourne-based Wintermute, which in April revealed a new anti-microbial chemistry now on sale in Australia as a hand sanitiser and surface cleaner under the Doxall brand, will have its novel water based fatty acid compound, GS-12, further tested in the US.

GS-12 has already demonstrated highly encouraging in-vitro data as a potential inhaled COVID-19 therapy under the US National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) program, and it as now be accepted to progress into animal studies.

The Biden administration NIAID program was launched made on 17 June by Dr Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the president and US National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director.

Dr Fauci said: “Through multidisciplinary collaborations among leading scientists in academia and industry, this investment from the American Rescue Plan to create the Antiviral Program for Pandemics will help inspire medical innovation.”

Wintermute chairman Tony Peacock said the news was ‘very exciting news for our little biotech’.

Wintermute Biomedical CEO, Brett Carter said: “GS-12 is a remarkably simple drug which uses our platform technology to release the antimicrobial agency of fatty acids.

“In this case, animal trials will test the positive in vitro results of GS-12 against the Sars-Cov-2 virus.”

The company’s chief scientific officer Dr Thomas Rau said GS-12 takes advantage of the protein spike structure of coronaviruses like Sars-Cov-2.

Dr Thomas Rau said: “Our hypothesis is that it neutralises the virus by binding to the protein spike.

“The components GS-12 are already on the FDA’s Generally Regarded As Safe list so the regulatory pathway could be relatively quick should the animal trials be successful.

“We also know that GS-12 is broad spectrum and effective against fungi. This could be a breakthrough for COVID-19 lung infections complicated by mixed fungal infections and for other types of pneumonia.”

Picture: Wintermute Biomedical

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