Aligos presents nonclinical data for coronavirus therapeutic program

Aligos Therapeutics announced that the company presented the progress to date on the development of an oral pan-coronavirus therapeutic at the 2022 Respi DART meeting that was held December 6 – 8, 2022, in Los Cabos, Mexico. Andreas Jekle, Ph.D., Senior Director of Biology at Aligos, delivered Aligos’ presentation, titled "Preclinical Evaluation of ALG-097558: A Novel, Orally Bioavailable Pan-Coronavirus 3CLpro Inhibitor for the Treatment of COVID-19." During his presentation, Dr. Jekle indicated that in biochemical and cellular assays, ALG-097558 demonstrated potent, pan-coronavirus antiviral activity. In human airway epithelium cell cultures, ALG-097558 demonstrated efficient inhibition of viral replication with EC99.9 values of 5.3 and 54 nM, respectively, with or without 40% human serum. In the SARS-CoV-2 hamster infection model, efficient reduction of viral replication was demonstrated using a therapeutic dosing regimen with low oral doses of ALG-097558. Additionally, ALG-097558 retained a favorable antiviral activity profile against known 3CLpro resistance mutations. "As supported by the data in Dr. Jekle’s presentation, our 3CLpro inhibitor, ALG-097558, demonstrates superior potency against SARS-CoV-2, does not require ritonavir boosting and has the potential to have a higher barrier to resistance than other 3CLpro inhibitors such as nirmatrelvir," said Lawrence Blatt, Ph.D., MBA, CEO and Chairman of the Board at Aligos. "IND-enabling nonclinical studies are in progress, and we look forward to beginning first-in-human clinical trials during the first half of 2023."