Shares in respiratory drug discovery company Synairgen (SNG:AIM) surged 26% higher on Friday to 126.5p after data from trials on its inhaled Covid-19 treatment SNG001 was published in the well-regarded journal The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.
The lead author professor Tom Wilkinson said: ‘The results confirm our belief that interferon beta, a widely known drug approved for use in its injectable form for other indications, may have the potential as an inhaled drug to restore the lung’s immune response and accelerate recovery from COVID-19.’
Positive results were originally announced in July with the shares gaining 300% on the day of the news with more detailed results given at the company’s interim results on 29 September. The importance of having the data published in the Lancet is that it is peer-reviewed which gives the results greater weight and credibility.
Numis notes that this will now make it easier to recruit high quality trial sites in the new trials now underway which are focused on patients over the age of 65 or with other existing medical conditions.
The treatment is an ‘important therapeutic option alongside potential vaccines for the management of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic for high-risk, hospitalised patients and for the management of future seasonal and pandemic threats’, said the broker.
Patients receiving the drug had greater odds of improvement and recovered more rapidly than those patients receiving the placebo.
The Lancet paper also cited two other successful studies in China which have yielded similar encouraging results using inhaled interferons giving greater credence to inhaled solutions over those given by injection.
