Cocrystal Pharma soars on update of its COVID-19 antiviral programs

5 May 2021

USA-based Cocrystal Pharma (Nasdaq: COCP) saw its shares rocket 73% to $2.14 by close of trading yesterday, after it announced progress in developing broad-spectrum antiviral drug candidates that target coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Cocrystal initiated its COVID-19 program in March 2020 and has since expanded the program with additional development and licensing.

“We are aggressively developing novel coronavirus protease inhibitors for COVID-19 prophylactic and therapeutic use,” said Sam Lee, president of Cocrystal, adding: “These drug candidates bind to a highly conserved region of the active site of SARS-CoV-2 protease that is required for SARS-CoV-2 viral replication. Our high-resolution x-ray cocrystal structures further confirmed the specific covalent interaction with this conserved region of the proteases of the coronaviruses SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV viruses.”

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