Cortexyme, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on advancing therapeutics for rare and degenerative diseases, announced new preclinical data demonstrating the efficacy of the company’s 3CLpro inhibitor, COR803, for treatment of coronavirus infections, including COVID-19 disease, caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection. In ongoing preclinical research, COR803 successfully reduced viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in vivo after oral treatment.

COR803 is a novel small molecule 3CLpro inhibitor discovered and developed by Cortexyme based on its expertise in cysteine protease inhibition. 3CLpro, or Mpro, is a validated antiviral drug target shown to be essential in viral replication of SARS-CoV-2. Key findings from the company’s latest mouse study of COR803 included:

1. A decrease of virus titer in lung tissue after four days of treatment compared to vehicle control;
2. Comparable efficacy in animals orally dosed twice daily vs dosed once daily; and
3. Decreased lung weights in COR803 treated versus vehicle-treated animals, indicating improved pathology. Histopathological analysis is ongoing.

The target of COR803 is highly conserved across coronavirus strains observed to date and, therefore, has the potential to address both current and future coronavirus infection. Cortexyme believes COR803 has beneficial properties over other COVID-19 therapeutics and 3CLpro inhibitors in development.