Scientists linked to an Arizona biotech company are working around the clock to create a vaccine alternative to COVID-19 that would be in the form of a nasal spray.
The company Sotira was born in March, right as the pandemic was starting to sweep across America.
Founded by James Keating, Sotira is a pharmaceutical and therapeutic company dedicated to developing cutting-edge molecular therapy to treat and prevent diseases.
The company led by scientists Dr. Avik Roy and Dr. Gunnar Gottschalk has just successfully completed the second phase of pre-clinical testing for the vaccine-alternative KEPTIDE COVID, which has now been trademarked.
Dr. Gottschalk said they were able to get access to live samples of the virus early on, through labs in Wuhan, China.
Knowing that the virus entered through the airways, the treatment is based on stopping the entry of the virus into the body through ACE2, an enzyme receptor the virus uses to gain entry into human cells.
The Sotira scientific team has found that intranasal treatment of KEPTIDE 30 minutes before viral administration not only protects injuries in the lungs and the kidney, but also prevents acute death response in mice.
Sotira also collaborated with CDC-approved Coppe Laboratories to successfully complete their virus study in a BSL-3 environment.
Here is how the KEPTIDE functions:
- KEPTIDE™ acts as a blocker that protects the receptor cells in the human body that serve as a gateway for COVID-19.
- KEPTIDE™ targets the cells in the human body most at risk for infection vs. targeting the virus which continues to mutate in unpredictable ways.
- This blocking mechanism prevents the spread and infection of the virus into the rest of the body.
The research is now under review by the FDA. If approved, human clinical trials could begin as early as May 2021.