Encouraging data for bemcentinib in COVID-19 studies

Data from two Phase II studies investigating bemcentinib in hospitalized COVID-19 patients have been presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) by Norwegian biotech BerGenBio (OSE: BGBIO), sending the firm’s shares up 7.7% to 2.27 euros by close of trading today.

Data was presented from the UKRI Phase II ACCORD2 platform study, sponsored by University Hospital Southampton, and sponsored by the UK government, and BGBC020, BerGenBio’s open-label Phase II study conducted in South Africa and India. In total, 179 eligible patients were enrolled across both studies between May 2020 and March 2021, randomly allocated on an open-label basis to treatment with bemcentinib in addition to standard of care (SoC) compared to SoC alone.

The two studies shared an identical design, and combined data presented today showed encouraging survival benefit of 96.6% versus 91.2%, with fewer deaths within 29 days of enrolment in bemcentinib treated patients (1 of 30 and 2 of 58, 3.4%) versus SoC (5 of 34 and 3 of 57, 8.8%), respectively.