Nafamostat as COVID-19 Prevention

EPSRC funding has been secured to generate supporting data for early COVID-19 clinical trials for molecules emerging from national and international screening programmes.

Project overview

During the COVID pandemic, the Department of Health identified a critical need for rational selection of plausible candidates at phase I/II clinical trials. There was an urgent need for potential treatment candidates to be screened based on their pharmacokinetics.

CELT Global Health's objectives

The project allowed pharmacokinetic evidence, such as attainability of target concentrations, tissue penetration, etc for candidates of interest to be generated and shared across the Department of Health COVID Therapeutics Taskforce to ensure only the most effective treatments were taken forward to clinical trial. There were also additional evaluations for low– and middle- income settings, focusing on scalability and affordability in sub-Saharan Africa and preferring orally delivered medications, with little or no laboratory monitoring.

Outcomes

The project identified nafamostat as a potential candidate which, after aerosolisation into the nose, generated appropriate target concentrations and lung penetration for COVID-19 prevention. This product is currently being manufactured by a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO) to Good Manufacturing Process (GMP) regulations for release to the University of Edinburgh Clinical Trials Unit, who will complete a Phase I clinical trial in healthy volunteers to assess candidate safety and feasibility.

Awarding body