The Dimerix Ltd (ASX: DXB) share price has raced out of the gates this morning following news that one of its treatments has been included in a global COVID-19 clinical study.
Dimerix is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops new therapies in areas with unmet medical needs. In doing so, the company leverages its scalable proprietary platform technology, Receptor-HIT, to rapidly screen and identify new drug opportunities.
Why the Dimerix share price is flying higher
This morning, Dimerix announced that its novel treatment DMX-200 has been selected for inclusion in the REMAP-CAP global study protocol for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) caused by COVID-19.
The REMAP-CAP clinical study is endorsed by the World Health Organisation and has been named by the chief medical officers of the UK as a key clinical trial for COVID-19.
REMAP-CAP is an international platform trial run by a number of leading experts, institutions, and research groups. The trial already has several existing treatment domains including anti-viral, immune-modulation and immunoglobulin treatment arms. DMX-200 will now be part of a new treatment group to compare the effect of a number of treatment options on the clinical outcomes of COVID-19 patients requiring hospital care.
Upon regulatory approval, Dimerix believes DMX-200 could be the only investigational new drug in the study since all of the other candidates are a repurposing of existing approved drugs.
The overall REMAP-CAP study plans to include more than 7,000 patients at study sites across Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America. Dimerix stated it will work closely with REMAP-CAP to obtain the necessary regulatory and ethics approvals before providing DMX-200 to sites from its existing pharmaceutical-grade manufactured supply.
In addition to potentially benefitting ARDS patients with COVID-19, Dimerix is currently developing DMX-200 for both diabetic kidney disease and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (a kidney-related disease).
Commenting on today's update, Dimerix CEO and managing director Dr Nina Webster said:
"We are extremely pleased to be in a position to support this global initiative investigating the potential of multiple therapies to treat COVID-19 patients dying of ARDS".
"Dimerix is uniquely positioned to support the global effort in identifying COVID-19 treatments, as well as having two Phase 2 renal clinical studies completing mid- 2020," she added.
The Dimerix share price rocketed as much as 120% this morning to an intra-day high of 59.5 cents in early trade. It has since pulled back to 44 cents at the time of writing, representing a 63% jump. This takes Dimerix's current market capitalisation to around $80 million.
