RedHill Biopharma granted Chinese patent application for COVID-19 treatment

RedHill Biopharma (RDHL) announced that the China National Intellectual Property Administration has formally allowed a critical use of composition-of-matter patent for RedHill’s proprietary investigational compound RHB-107, a potential oral treatment for COVID-19. Data from RHB-107’s U.S. Phase 2 study showed a 100% reduction in hospitalization due to COVID-19, with zero patients on the RHB-107 arms versus 15% hospitalized for COVID-19 on the placebo-controlled arm. The study also showed an approximately 88% reduction in reported new severe COVID-19 symptoms after treatment initiation, with new severe COVID-19 symptoms reported by only 2.4% of the RHB-107 treated group compared to 20% of patients in the placebo-controlled arm. Further post-hoc analysis showed faster recovery periods from severe COVID-19 symptoms with a median of 3 days to recovery with RHB-107 compared to 8 days with placebo. Additional clinical data is expected from the externally non-dilutive funded PROTECT study, supported by the U.S. Department of Defense.