Senhwa Biosciences Inc (生華科) yesterday said that it plans to conduct animal testing of its experimental new drug Silmitasertib to see if it can curb replication of the novel coronavirus.
The firm’s announcement came after preliminary testing by the National Health Research Institutes found that the drug is capable of inhibiting the related human coronavirus OC43’s (HCoV-OC43) nucleocapsid protein, which plays an important role in virus proliferation.
Senhwa earlier this month asked the agency to run an initial trial after the University of California, San Francisco last month identified Silmitasertib among 69 drugs or experimental compounds that might be effective in treating COVID-19.
However, as only National Taiwan University Hospital has access to the novel coronavirus, the agency could not test the drug against it, so HCoV-OC43 was targeted instead, the company said.
“As HCoV-OC43 is highly similar to the novel coronavirus in terms of genome sequence, we were excited about the test results, as they might suggest that the experimental drug, originally designed as a cancer treatment, could be an anti-viral drug,” a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone.
Encouraged by the outcomes, Senhwa, which previously said that it had no intention of conducting anti-viral tests as it wanted to focus on trials for a cancer treatment, changed its mind and plans to conduct testing later this month at the earliest.
The testing, to be conducted on mice, would begin after the protocol with contract research groups is set, Senhwa said, adding that the testing is expected to finish within one month.
“We would not test against the novel coronavirus, as we do not have a biosafety level 3 lab, which is necessary given the high contagion risk. However, we would test against other viruses,” said the official who declined to be named.
Senhwa would apply with international foundations for sponsorship to run human testing if the animal testing has promising results, the official said.
The company said that it would share its results with the US National Institutes of Health, with which it has worked together on evaluating the drug’s efficacy.
Silmitasertib could promote the formation of street granules by disrupting casein kinase 2, a protein kinase that performs diverse functions related to cell survival, thus preventing viruses from gaining ingredients such as nucleic acids to create a new virus, the firm said.
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