BRIEF—Firms work on inhalable antibody therapy for COVID-19

Following a collaboration agreement in November 2020, Augmenta Bioworks and TFF Pharmaceuticals have selected AUG-3387 as their lead candidate in COVID-19.

The companies are going to develop AUG-3387 as an inhaled therapy, an approach which could overcome barriers to patient access significantly.

The firms plan to offer the antibody therapy for high risk individuals, either as a prophylactic or as a treatment for those who have been infected but not yet hospitalized.

The candidate has demonstrated activity against all variant strains tested to date, including the major COVID variants of concern.

TFF chief executive Glenn Mattes said: “By combining the novel pan-variant activity of AUG-3387 with the enhanced stability and ease of delivery provided by the TFF technology, we believe this drug could potentially make significant impact on bringing COVID-19 disease under control where vaccines with extreme cold chain requirements are not feasible.”