26 June 2020 - - Australian drug development company Noxopharm has commenced its NOXCOVID clinical programme with a planned Phase I trial in Europe, the company said.

This action is designed to provide important safety data and proof-of-principle of using Veyonda, a drug that blocks cGAS-STING signaling, as a potential treatment of the cytokine storm and septic shock that have emerged as major causes of morbidities and death in COVID-19 patients.

In April, Noxopharm announced that laboratory studies revealed that one of the mechanisms of action of idronoxil, the active ingredient in Veyonda, is to block the cGAS-STING signaling pathway, including the overexuberant STING and cytokine response to the sort of hypoxic tissue damage associated with low body oxygen levels in COVID-19 patients suffering severe respiratory distress.

A cytokine storm involves an over-abundance in the blood of multiple proteins known as pro-inflammatory cytokines.

Inhibiting single cytokine members of that storm has to date not proved effective in preventing COVID-19 deaths.

Noxopharm believes a more rational approach is to go further upstream and target the cytokine storm at its headwaters, thereby potentially modifying the production of the broad range of incriminating cytokines.

The cGAS-STING pathway is becoming increasingly seen as that headwater.

Noxopharm is a clinical-stage Australian oncology drug development company with offices in Sydney and New York.

The company has a primary focus on the development of Veyonda and is the major shareholder in the non-oncology drug development company, Nyrada Inc.