Lumen Biosciences has received a $4 million grant from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command to develop a drug to treat gastrointestinal infection in COVID-19 patients and to potentially block disease transmission.

The funding will support the development of the drug and initial work on a large-scale manufacturing plant capable of producing 1 billion doses of the drug per year.

Lumen plans to launch phase 2 clinical trials of the drug and to finish production on its manufacturing facility next year.