GeNeuro starts a clinical trials for its long COVID treatment

200 patients are recruited and will be followed in 5 Swiss hospitals participating in the study. The first results are expected during the second semester 2023.

GeNeuro is a biopharmaceutical company developing new treatments for neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and the severe consequences of COVID-19, (PASC, post-COVID or long COVID). It announced the  enrolment of the first patients in its phase 2 trial evaluating temelimab against long COVID, at the post-COVID consultation of the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) in Geneva (reference centre) as well as other Swiss centres participating in the study: Inselspital in Bern, REHAB Basel in Basel, Kantonsspital Graubünden in Chur and the Centre Hospitalier du Valais Romand in Sion.

The expression of the pathogenic W-ENV protein triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection, which continues long after the resolution of the acute phase, is suspected to play a major role in the inflammation in many patients with long-standing COVID infection and may explain many of the nervous system disorders that patients experience, such as cognitive loss and fatigue.

The six-month, multi-centre personalised medicine trial will recruit 200 patients who are positive for the presence of the pathogenic protein W-ENV in their blood. The trial will evaluate temelimab, an anti-W-ENV antibody developed by GeNeuro, as a disease-modifying therapy in patients with long-standing COVID who suffer from concentration problems or fatigue.

We are delighted to be able to study this therapeutic approach for people who suffer from long and disabling COVID. We urgently need treatments for these patients who are often distraught”, says Prof. Idris Guessous, Head of the Department of Primary Care Medicine at the HUG, founder of the post-COVID consultation opened at the HUG in November 2020, and principal investigator of the study. “We hope that this targeted work on the pathogenic W-ENV protein will allow us to develop a personalised medicine approach, treating patients positive to this protein.”

“Today, we have very strong evidence of the presence of the pathogenic W-ENV protein in more than 25% of the patients in the long COVID cohorts, and we have developed a test to confirm its presence in a patient’s blood,” says Professor David Leppert, Medical Director of GeNeuro. “The W-ENV protein triggers innate immunity and is pathogenic to cells in the nervous system. It may be the cause of the debilitating symptoms experienced by a large subset of patients with long COVID. We hope that its neutralization by temelimab will lead to a significant improvement in the debilitating syndromes experienced by these patients.

The first patients have already been included in the five Swiss centres. More centres will be opened in the EU. The trial was partly funded in Switzerland by the “Federal Programme for the Promotion of Medicines against COVID-19” to support clinical research of medicines against COVID-19. The main results of the clinical trial are expected in the second half of 2023.

Source: Press Release