Melbourne, Australia; 1 September 2020: Starpharma (ASX: SPL, OTCQX: SPHRY) today announced it has applied its novel DEP®
drug delivery technology to create a long‑acting, water soluble version
of remdesivir. Remdesivir is an antiviral drug, currently being
developed by Gilead to treat COVID-19 and has emergency use
authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment
of COVID-19 in adults and children hospitalised with severe disease.
Remdesivir has broad-spectrum antiviral activity. Current
formulations of remdesivir are required to be administered intravenously
due to the drug’s low solubility, with each infusion taking up to two
hours and requiring daily administration for either 5 or 10 days.
In contrast, Starpharma’s DEP® remdesivir is a highly
water-soluble nanoparticle formulation of remdesivir with controlled
release properties, which would potentially allow for less frequent
dosing and use in a non-hospital setting, such as aged-care. The
solubility of DEP® remdesivir is 100‑fold higher than standard remdesivir. The benefit of DEP®
remdesivir’s enhanced aqueous solubility is that it would enable
subcutaneous injection rather than intravenous infusion, allowing for
outpatient treatment and reducing the burden on hospitals.