The application is being made following the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) RFA-AI-20-028
Lexaria Bioscience Corp (OTCMKTS:LXRP) (CSE:LXX) has said it is applying to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a grant to support its second round of planned studies relating to treatment options for coronavirus (COVID-19).
The application is being made following the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) RFA-AI-20-028 entitled "Partnerships for Countermeasures against Select Pathogens," said the Kelowna, British Columbia-based company, which is a specialist in drug delivery platforms.
READ: Lexaria Bioscience Corp closes US$2 million financing to fund DehydraTECH antiviral drug study
The aim is to receive research applications for projects, which are focused on pre-clinical development of lead candidate therapeutics, vaccines, and related countermeasures against select NIAID emerging infectious diseases/pathogens of interest including COVID-19.
In May this year, Lexaria revealed it was kicking off a human pilot study to look into the effectiveness of its DehydraTECH technology to enhance the oral bioavailability of antiviral drugs that could be used to treat coronavirus (COVID-19) or other infectious diseases
Lexaria said its application for the funding includes a detailed summary of its research plans to investigate the potential effectiveness of its patented DehydraTECH drug delivery platform technology in enabling improved safety and efficacy of certain poorly water soluble antiviral drugs against SARS-CoV-2 infected cells and animals.
The group has titled its application: "In vitro and in vivo animal exploratory pharmacokinetic and preliminary efficacy modelling of select orally administered antiviral compounds following DehydraTECH formulation enhancement."
The firm said it has not disclosed the antiviral drugs it plans to investigate in this program, but noted that it has made its selections from drug classes that have shown early promise in COVID-19 therapeutic utility from research recently conducted by other researchers in the field.
It cautioned, however, that many research grant applications are not successfully granted and the group cannot predict whether this NIH grant application will be successful or not.
Lexaria also said its subsidiary Lexaria CanPharm ULC has successfully received a new license from Health Canada that allows for expanded testing capabilities including sensory testing of cannabis oral products for taste, smell, and additional research and evaluation.
The license is effective now and expires August 9, 2023. Lexaria said it expects that its expanded new evaluation capabilities will enable it to advance its technology more quickly for use in various product categories.
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