Relief Therapeutics’ Peptide Hormone Helped Critical COVID-19 Patients

Severely ill COVID-19 patients given Relief Therapeutics’ RLF-100 (aviptadil) experienced rapid recovery in just three days, according to the company and its research partner NeuroRx.

The treatment, a patented formulation of synthetic human vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, works by inhibiting pro-inflammatory cytokines and protecting lung cells targeted by the coronavirus. It has been granted expanded access and a Fast Track designation by the FDA and is currently in an ongoing phase 2/3 trial.

The peptide hormone formulation led to fast recovery of COVID-19 patients with respiratory failure who were given access to the drug under the FDA’s emergency investigational new drug (IND) program.

Patients with critical COVID-19 “were seen to have a rapid clearing of classic pneumonitis findings on x-ray, accompanied by an improvement in blood oxygen and a 50 percent or greater average decrease in laboratory markers associated with COVID-19 inflammation,” the companies said.

Houston Methodist Hospital was the first to announce a rapid clinical recovery under the emergency use, the companies said. A 54-year-old COVID-19 patient was taken off a ventilator within four days of being treated with RLF-100. Similar results were reported for more than 15 patients treated under the FDA’s emergency use. — James Miessler