Novel Immunotherapy Enables COVID-19 Patients to Produce Significant Antibodies

California based Corvus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced on September 10, 2020, its ongoing Phase 1 study investigating the potential for CPI-006 to provide a novel immunotherapy approach for patients being treated with COVID-19. The results demonstrated that all evaluable patients treated in the first two cohorts (0.3 and 1.0 mg dose of CPI-006) of the study produced significant titers of antibody to SARS-CoV-2 within 7-days of receiving the treatment, with levels of antibody, including neutralizing antibodies, continually increasing out to 28-days.

In addition, all of these patients were discharged from the hospital with clinical improvement and none experienced any drug-related safety issues.

Richard A. Miller, M.D., CEO of Corvus, said in a press statement: “We believe the robust antibody responses were induced by the B cell activation triggered with CPI-006 in our study and that such responses may effectively eradicate the SARS-CoV-2 virus within treated patients and provide them with prolonged immunity."

"Specifically compared to passively administered monoclonal antibody approaches, we believe CPI-006 could trigger B cell activation at much lower antibody dose levels and provide activity against potential new mutant variants because it works by activating the immune system to generate polyclonal anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Based on this unique mechanism, we are considering the potential for CPI-006 to be used earlier, including symptomatic outpatients and in combination with vaccination, with the hope that it could limit or eliminate the need for booster injections and produce long-term immunity.”