Medesis Pharma is developing a radioprotection drug to treat people irradiated following a civil or military nuclear accident (NP02 – NanoManganese®).
Preclinical trials have been carried out with the French Armed Forces Biomedical Research Institute (IRBA). (Study reports available)
A series of studies have been conducted on irradiated animals, with very positive results, enabling all the animals to survive with an LD50 radiation dose (50% of the animals die within 10 days). As a very important factor for radioprotection, activity is observed with radiomitigation, which means that it is effective when administered within 24h of irradiation.
Application of this product for the treatment of severe forms of COVID-19
Similarities can be seen with the severe pulmonary inflammatory lesions observed for both pathologies, triggered in one case by the coronavirus COVID-2 and in the other case by nuclear irradiation. They are linked to an excessive autoimmune response. These similarities support the very probable assumption that the NanoManganese® product may make it possible to treat and prevent the severe forms of pneumonia and the respiratory insufficiencies observed with COVID-19 by restoring intracellular MnSOD activity.
A phase 2 trial is being prepared, based on 120 patients presenting moderate to severe forms treated upon hospitalization, at 10 hospital centers, with a treatment duration of 10 days.