Cocrystal Pharma highlights approach to antiviral drug candidates

As the fall seasonal influenza and COVID season gets underway in the Northern Hemisphere, Cocrystal Pharma (COCP) highlights the ability of the Company’s innovative structure-based drug discovery platform technology to discover and develop novel broad-spectrum antivirals therapeutics to treat a wide range of viral diseases, including newly emerging pandemic strains such as recent H5N1 avian influenza identified in the US. Cocrystal’s platform utilizes Nobel Prize-winning technology to develop a new class of direct-acting antivirals that work against enzymes that are essential for viral replication. The Company is evaluating its oral CC-42344 in a Phase 2a study in healthy subjects infected with a seasonal influenza A strain. Topline safety and tolerability results from this trial are expected by the end of 2024, and preparations are underway for an Investigational New Drug application to conduct a late-stage clinical study with CC-42344 in the U.S. The Company is also conducting a Phase 1 study with its oral protease inhibitor CDI-988, the first pan-viral drug candidate in clinical evaluation for both noroviruses and coronaviruses. Topline safety and tolerability results of the multiple-ascending cohorts are expected late this year or early next year. There is no approved vaccine or antiviral for norovirus. Norovirus is highly contagious and is the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis, which has gained notoriety for outbreaks in closed quarters such as on cruise ships and in nursing homes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 685 million cases and an estimated 200,000 deaths are attributed to norovirus each year worldwide, with an estimated societal cost of approximately $60 billion.