Griffith University has entered into a $135 million commercial partnership with Gene Company Pty Ltd to further develop a new drug treatment for SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19.
Going beyond the treatment of COVID-19, this innovative RNA technology is only one of its class being developed in Australia, and has the potential to be applied to other viruses.
Professor Kevin Morris from Griffith’s School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences said the utility of this technology is paradigm shifting and Gene Company, recently established in Queensland, will lead the development of the first-in-class RNA nanoparticle drug candidates in Australia.
“This treatment will work differently than other anti-virals currently available as it directly targets the viral RNA and cuts it up, rendering it deceased,” Professor Morris said.
“This novel therapy has shown to reduce viral load in preclinical testing greater than 98 per cent and is likely to be effective in cases with active infection.”
Professor Nigel McMillan from Griffith’s Menzies Health Institute Queensland, whose team helped develop the therapy, said: “The world needs new antivirals such as this as we are experiencing more and more viral infections and we have few current drugs to treat them with.”
Griffith researchers identified conserved regions in the SARS-CoV-2 virus and designed RNA sequences that bind to these regions, thereby blocking the virus from infecting host cells and replicating.
Griffith, through its commercialisation office Griffith Enterprise, and Gene Company negotiated a licence agreement in April 2023 for the relevant intellectual property (IP), under which Gene Company will be responsible for the development of the drug candidate as a universal treatment for all COVID-19 variants.
Under the terms of the agreement, Griffith will receive up to $135 million in upfront and potential milestone payments plus royalties on global sales with a multi-billion-dollar market potential.
Managing Director of Gene Company Nadia Yunju Huang said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted public health and the global economy.”
“Up until now, there is no virus specific targeted antiviral therapy to treat COVID-19 but we are confident that Griffith’s innovative RNA-based technology has the potential to become the first universal therapy against all COVID-19 variants,” she said.
Gene Company has already attracted $10 million in seed capital from overseas investors to support the development of the Griffith IP and Queensland’s innovation ecosystem, and intends to recruit Queensland-based scientists to develop the licenced technologies into globally approved drug therapies for diseases that currently lack effective treatments.