Innovation Pharmaceuticals (formerly Cellceutix Corporation) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on medical therapies in dermatology, oncology, anti-inflammatory and antibiotics.
Brilacidin from Innovation Pharmaceuticals (FORMERLY KNOWN as PMX30063, PolyMedix, Inc., Radnor, PA) is a defensin memetic that has been used in FDA clinical trials for various indications. Brilacidin has shown antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties. The drug was developed for treatment of eye infections. Brilacidin is under investigation for inflammatory bowel disease and oral mucositis in cancer. Brilacidin is a nonpeptidic analogue that mimics the structural properties of defensins, which are part of the innate immune system. Brilacidin acts on the cell membrane of bacteria with depolarization.
COVID is a respiratory disease outbreak caused by a novel coronavirus strain called SARS-CoV-2, first detected in Wuhan City, China and declared a public health emergency of international concern on January 30, 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO). Brilacidin will be tested as a coronavirus drug. Innovation Pharmaceuticals is collaborating with a U.S. virology laboratory and has plans to test Brilacidin in a government-funded virology laboratory in Asia to assess activity on RNA viruses. The immunomodulatory properties are multifaceted and proposed to have potential to fight coronavirus infections. Brilacidin has been shown to have moderate activity against enveloped viruses. Brilacidin could be administered post-infection as an adjuvant therapy to strengthen the body’s natural immune response after the viral load is reduced. As a vaccine, Brilacidin is proposed to have potential to disrupt viral replication and enhance the protective role of natural surfactants in the lung to resolve respiratory problems.