The advent of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists has meant new hope for people with type 2 diabetes and obesity, but also has brought the challenge of muscle loss, which various drug developers are trying to ameliorate by way of mixed approaches.
Veru Inc. announced results from an in vitro study evaluating the effects of sabizabulin against a prototypical poxvirus, vaccinia virus, which demonstrated that sabizabulin prevented both the release of poxvirus from infected cells and the spread of poxvirus to healthy cells.
Shares of Veru Inc. hit a 52-week low March 3 after the U.S. FDA declined to grant an emergency use authorization (EUA) for sabizabulin for use in hospitalized adults with moderate to severe COVID-19 who are at high risk for acute respiratory distress syndrome. The decision comes as little surprise, given the negative advisory panel vote in November, but the agency’s wording might suggest potential use for the microtubule disruptor in the future.
Wall Street trimmed shares of Veru Inc. (NASDAQ:VERU) by upwards of 20% in the wake of an editorial published Aug. 23 in The New England Journal of Medicine publication NEJM Evidence. The opinion piece, by two critical-care pulmonologists, added verve to the debate about the efficacy of drugs for people hospitalized with COVID-19.
In the summer of 2020, when Veru Inc. began researching sabizabulin for treating COVID-19 patients, the company’s CEO was cautioned that the virus could be gone by the time a therapy could be developed. Nearly two years later, Veru still has the compound in development and just reported phase III data that could propel it toward an emergency use authorization.
CEO Mitchell Steiner said Veru Inc. at first downplayed the prospects of oncology candidate VERU-111 in COVID-19 treatment but now, with positive phase II data in hand, the company has a moral obligation to push onward to late-stage research.