Shares of Aridis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARDS) are climbing premarket on Tuesday after the company announced that it has augmented it's inhaled AR-711 monoclonal antibody (mAb) to Covid-19 with a second mAb that is designed to neutralise emerging variants, including those from South Africa, Brazil, and Japan.
According to the company, the dual antibody cocktail will be delivered as an inhaled treatment and is expected to provide broad coverage of all known high-risk strains.
AR-711 is being developed as a self-administered at home inhaled treatment for Covid-19 patients not yet hospitalised.
“Even at peak COVID-19 vaccination coverage, it is expected that up to a third of the world's population will remain unvaccinated and at risk of contracting COVID-19, thus requiring treatment intervention,” said Vu Truong, CEO of Aridis Pharmaceuticals.
“This is exactly where treatment modalities such as our inhaled COVID-19 mAb cocktail could fill the gap, i.e. by neutralizing the circulating and variant viral strains allowing infected individuals to be treated earlier and recover at home,” added Truong.
Aridis also announced preclinical development services support from NIAID with additional support from the Coronavirus Immunotherapy Consortium, which is helping to initiate the programs phase 1, 2, and 3 clinical trials in the second half of 2021.
The company’s share price is up 13.10% premarket at $8.20.