Specialty pharmaceutical company Relief Therapeutics Holding (SIX:RLF) has said it expects top-line results from a US phase IIb/III trial of RLF-100 in severe COVID-19-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome early in the fourth quarter of this year, Reuters news agency reported on Tuesday.

Reportedly, the company's chairman, Raghuram Selvaraju, said in August 2020 that he saw a 60% to 70% chance of the drug, also called aviptadil, winning regulatory approval in COVID-19.

According to Relief Therapeutics, aviptadil, a synthetic vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, is the first COVID-19 therapeutic to block replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in human lung cells.

Selvaraju was quoted as saying in the company's interim results statement on 15 September 2020 that he was "excited about the strong progress already made in the past few months to advance this important programme". He added that the company was fully financed to complete the two US COVID-19 trials underway and is now preparing for European trials with RLF-100.