- European commission funds COVID project iMPact with 7.9 million euros
- MetrioPharm will receive a total of 7.5 million euros of the provided sum
- iMPact project aims to research COVID-19 therapies
MetrioPharm AG, a pharmaceutical company developing drugs for inflammatory diseases, announces that it has signed a contract for funding coming from the HERA Incubator of the European Commission. In July 2021, MetrioPharm had been nominated by the European Commission to the shortlist of funded projects. Under grant agreement number 101046182, the COVID project iMPact will now receive funding totaling €7.9 million. MetrioPharm, as the project's consortium leader, will receive €7.5 million of this amount.
The iMPact project is one of the 6 initiatives selected by the Commission to work on drug candidates for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2. In this project, MetrioPharm has joined forces with three consortium partners, ImmunoLogik, Catalyze, and MC Toxicology Consulting, in preparation for an international COVID-19 research project. The project includes the conduct of a Phase II clinical trial with MetrioPharm's lead compound MP1032 against COVID-19, as well as preclinical studies on the effect of MP1032 on mutant variants of SARS-CoV-2. MP1032 has already demonstrated both, strong immunomodulatory and specific antiviral properties against SARS-CoV-2 in preclinical studies.
MetrioPharm CEO Thomas Christély commented, "We are pleased with the European Commission's confidence in our compound MP1032 and in the work of the MetrioPharm team. We are currently observing in the U.S., as well as in Western Europe, how the delta variant continues to be responsible for high case rates. In the U.S. this corresponds to approximately 95% of all new infections, despite a 69.0% first dose vaccination rate. In this context, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government's chief medical advisor warns, 'The demand for therapies will remain urgent and strong, including those deployed early in infection to stop replication of the virus and those that can be administered to address extreme illness.' The provision of the grant will enable us to advance the pharmaceutical development of our immunomodulator MP1032 for COVID-19 patients. We aim to use MP1032 to help alleviate COVID-19 symptoms in both, early and later stages and shorten hospitalizations."
About the European Commission funding
The European Commission's funding program was launched in April 2021 to support urgently needed research and development to combat the corona virus and its variants, across Europe. The HERA project is part of a broad range of European Commission research and innovation activities to combat the corona virus. In July 2021, the iMPact project was shortlisted by the European Commission for funding under the HERA Incubator.