Ridgeback Bio trialling EIDD-2801 as potential COVID-19 therapy

Miami, USA-based Ridgeback Biotherapeutics has initiated two Phase II clinical trials to test the efficacy of EIDD-2801 as an anti-viral treatment for COVID-19.

According to the biotech company, Phase I trials recently determined that EIDD-2801 is safe in human doses that provide blood levels well above levels that animal models suggest should be effective against SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19. EIDD-2801 will be administered to patients 18 years old and over in two studies: Study 2003 will enroll recently symptomatic, newly-diagnosed patients in a home, or out of hospital, setting; Study 2004 will enroll hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

To ensure that EIDD-2801 is rapidly available for patients if the medicine proves to be an effective treatment for COVID-19, Ridgeback has been manufacturing hundreds of thousands of doses at its own risk and expense -- with plans for the company to produce as many as a million treatment courses by the fall even in advance of definitive clinical data.