Bold Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel anti-cancer therapies, has suggested the potential utility of its lead drug, BOLD-100, as a novel antiviral agent, it was reported on Friday.

The firm is looking for expressions of interest from collaborators who have the capability and resources to allow rapid advancement of BOLD-100 in the treatment of COVID-19.

The product's main mechanism of action is to inhibit stress-induced upregulation of GRP78. GRP78 is a common receptor for viral recognition of host cells and the recent publication by Ibrahim et al entitled 'COVID-19 spike-host cell receptor GRP78 binding prediction' on 10 March 2020 in the Journal of Infection identified GRP78 as a potential binding site for COVID-19. Other published literature has suggested that inhibiting or blocking GPR78 can decrease viral loads or viral replication in Ebola, Japanese Encephalitis Virus and Dengue Virus. The company is focused on development of the product in combination with FOLFOX and other anti-cancer agents for the treatment of various gastrointestinal cancers, including gastric, pancreatic, colorectal and bile duct (cholangiocarcinoma) cancers. An earlier completed Phase one monotherapy study of BOLD-100 in advanced cancers indicated that BOLD-100 was generally well-tolerated, with minimal side effects. Presently, the company has ample cGMP clinical product available and an open IND/CTA in the United States and Canada, respectively, allowing for potentially rapid clinical development.