Altesa BioSciences, a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on chronic lung diseases including COPD and asthma, announced on Tuesday new clinical data showing that its investigational antiviral therapy, vapendavir, significantly reduced critical inflammatory biomarkers in COPD patients experiencing a rhinovirus infection.

The data were shared in an oral presentation at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress 2026 in Barcelona, Spain.

According to the company, the reductions observed in local airway inflammation are consistent with previously reported findings presented at the ERS International Congress 2025, in which vapendavir treatment significantly reduced viral load, illness duration and severity of lower respiratory symptoms, and improved quality of life, relative to placebo.

COPD patients in the study were experimentally challenged with rhinovirus and treated with either vapendavir or placebo beginning after the onset of symptoms. Analysis of nasal lavage samples showed that vapendavir treatment was associated with significantly lower levels of two key inflammatory molecules -- IP-10/CXCL10 and GM-CSF -- over the course of infection compared to placebo. Nasal levels of two additional biomarkers, IFN-alpha 2a and IFN-lambada 1/IL-29, trended lower with vapendavir treatment but did not reach statistical significance.