$35M govt funding for Partner Therapeutics to develop Leukine as a COVID-19 treatment

Boston, USA-based biotech Partner Therapeutics (PTx) today announced a $35 million milestone-based Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) with the US Department of Defense (DoD) to fund two clinical studies of inhaled Leukine (sargramostim; rhu-granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor "GM-CSF") in patients with COVID-19 associated acute hypoxemia.

PTx acquired the global rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize Leukine from French pharma major Sanofi (Euronext: SAN) in February 2018, just a month after the biotech was launched by the former Merrimack chief executive Robert Mulroy and Debasish Roychowdhury, the ex-chief medical officer of Seragon.

Through the DoD's Chemical Biological Defense Program COVID-19 efforts, the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense's (JPEO-CBRND) will evaluate the effect of Leukine in improving clinical outcomes, including oxygenation and percent of patients intubated. The first of the two clinical studies will be initiated in this month in centers in the USA, and will be conducted under an Investigational New Drug (IND) Application, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration on May 20, 2020.