Australia’s biotech sector tests multiple agents to fight...

Australia’s biotech sector tests multiple agents to fight COVID-19

April 21, 2020
By Tamra Sami

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PERTH, Australia – The Australian Government is providing AU$13 million (US$8 million) to fast-track research into treatments for COVID-19, and a number of promising candidates are about to enter the clinic.

The funding from the Medical Research Future Fund will support rapid development of treatment options for COVID-19, with AU$8 million to identify and develop antiviral therapies for people infected with COVID-19, and AU$5 million for clinical trials to better treat and manage COVID-19 patients with severe acute respiratory distress.

Melbourne-based Starpharma Holdings Ltd.’s antiviral dendrimer, SPL-7013, has been shown to have significant activity against COVID-19.

SPL-7013 inhibited the infection of cells with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the finding was validated by replicate testing against Gilead Sciences Inc.’s remdesivir, which is considered a leading candidate for the treatment of COVID-19.

SPL-7013 is the active ingredient in Starpharma’s Vivagel products. The Vivagel condom has an antiviral coating that inactivates up to 99.9% of HIV, HPV and HSV-2 and provides "near complete" protection against the Zika virus, Starpharma CEO Jackie Fairley told BioWorld.

SPL-7013 was originally developed as an antiviral but it is also approved for the treatment and prevention of bacterial vaginosis.


Jackie Fairley, CEO, Starpharma
“Given its antiviral activity, when the COVID-19 issue emerged, we were interested to know if it was active against that virus,” Fairley said, noting that the active molecule inactivates virus particles by binding to the virus and rendering it incapable of invading human cells.

The Starpharma compound was tested against a panel of other compounds, including Gilead’s remdesivir, and SPL-7013 “was the most active compound out of all of them that were tested,” she said.

Fairley said she couldn’t provide additional details on the study, but the company will publish the results at a later date. The testing was conducted by Melbourne-based 360Biolabs, which has developed SARS-CoV-2 assays to support antiviral discovery and development.

Given SPL-7013 is already approved as the active component of two approved Vivagel products that are marketed in Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia and Southeast Asia, the CEO said she expects the development path would be quite fast.

Starpharma will now conduct additional short-term preclinical studies, and it will be exploring different routes of administration.

“We’ll be looking at a nasal spray and an inhaled version and eye drops as a preventative against COVID-19 infection.

“By all accounts, it will be quite some time before a vaccine is available, so you could see a product like this for front-line workers but also for people who want another level of defense. Everyone who is wearing a mask is a potential candidate for something like this,” she said.

Starpharma's underlying technology is built around dendrimers – a type of synthetic nanoscale polymer that is highly regular in size and structure and well suited to pharmaceutical and medical uses.

She said the company was well placed with AU$36 million in cash and its operations running normally.