Clinical-stage specialty pharmaceutical company Taiwan Liposome Co. Ltd. (TLC:NASDAQ), which is focused on the development of nanomedicines to meet unmet medical needs, today announced that "a pre-print version of a manuscript on TLC's strategy to treat Covid-19 disease with targeted delivery of inhalable liposomal hydroxychloroquine has been made publicly available."
The company explained that "hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is an anti-malarial and anti-inflammatory drug that has been shown to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro and tested in clinical studies." The firm stated that recent clinical studies of orally ingested HCQ have demonstrated inconclusive results though due to the extremely high dosage levels required to achieve effective antiviral levels.
The firm indicated that "the manuscript describes a nonclinical pharmacokinetics study in which, comparing equivalent doses of inhalable liposomal HCQ to intravenous (to represent oral) unformulated HCQ, inhalable liposomal HCQ achieved increased exposure (~30-fold) and half-life (~2.5-fold) in the lungs while also achieving lower blood and heart exposure." The company further advised that an inhalable liposomal formulation of HCQ would require only a tiny fraction of the oral dose in order to achieve sufficient and locally sustained drug exposure in the lungs, thereby reducing systemic and cardiac toxicities frequently observed with higher HCQ oral doses.
Taiwan Liposome Co.'s President George Yeh commented, "A global pandemic requires a global effort. In these unprecedented times, we should all put the wellbeing of the people first and do what we can to help...TLC has long been aware of the advantages of inhalable liposomal formulations in the treatment of infectious and inflammatory lung diseases, and we are grateful to have started the development of a potential treatment for Covid-19 before it became a pandemic."
"We hope that the promising results seen in our animal studies will draw attention from organizations around the world and result in a global and expedited development of inhalable liposome HCQ to deliver a potential treatment that the world needs as quickly as possible," Yeh added.
The firm reported that the manuscript is entitled "A Strategy to Treat Covid-19 Disease with Targeted Delivery of Inhalable Liposomal Hydroxychloroquine: A Non-clinical Pharmacokinetic Study." The company advised that the manuscript is currently undergoing peer review and has been submitted for publication.
The firm noted that coronaviruses are a group of viruses including Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) that can lead to severe respiratory illness.
Taiwan Liposome Co. is a clinical-stage specialty pharmaceutical company headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. The firm stated that its research and development efforts are focused on a portfolio of novel nanomedicines that maximize the potential of its proprietary lipid-assembled drug delivery platform (LipAD™). The company's pipeline includes drug candidates for pain management for use in osteoarthritis and treating post surgical pain, ophthalmology for macular edema and oncology for the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma.
Taiwan Liposome began the day with a market capitalization of around $231.1 million with approximately 37.09 million shares outstanding. TLC shares opened 13% higher today at $7.05 (+$0.82, +13.16%) over yesterday's $6.23 closing price and reached a new 52-week high price this morning of $12.65. The stock has traded today between $7.01 and $12.65 per share and is currently trading at $9.92 (+$3.69, +59.23%).
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