26 October 2020 - - Ireland-based aerosol drug delivery specialist Aerogen has released details of a broad collaborative effort to support pharmaceutical companies from around the world as they work to develop COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, the company said.

To date, more than 10m patients globally have been treated safely and effectively with Aerogen's drug delivery technology.

As the global scientific community rallies against the pandemic, there has been unprecedented interest in inhaled delivery of antiviral drugs, leading to Aerogen's involvement in multiple COVID-19 drug development initiatives with leading pharmaceutical companies and prominent academic groups.

Aerogen's closed-circuit nebulizer technology, which addresses key concerns around safety and improves patient outcomes, is being used in hospitals across the globe to deliver aerosolized medication to critically-ill ventilated COVID-19 patients.

Aerogen was quick to anticipate the critical role that development of new inhaled drugs will ultimately play in the COVID-19 response, and in March of this year formed a COVID response unit to support projects researching potential treatments and vaccines.

This response unit is now working with pharmaceutical companies worldwide to ensure safe delivery of inhaled therapies. Several of these collaborations are already in clinical trials, with others on track to enter studies on moderately and severely ill COVID-19 patients over the weeks and months ahead.

In one such collaboration, Aerogen has signed an agreement with Synairgen plc, a Southampton, UK-based biotechnology company, to provide the market-leading Aerogen Solo/Ultra nebulizer system for delivery of SNG001 directly into the lungs of COVID-19 patients.

SNG001 is an inhaled interferon beta that stimulates the innate immune system.

Initial investigation of SNG001 as a potential COVID-19 treatment has been promising hospitalized patients receiving SNG001 were at reduced risk of developing severe disease and more than twice as likely to recover to the 'no limitation of activities' level on the ordinal scale over the course of treatment.

The Aerogen Solo is a closed-system, single patient use (vibrating mesh) aerosol drug delivery technology offering superior performance across all hospital ventilation modalities.

Designed for the safety of both the patient and the caregiver, Aerogen's closed-circuit design enables the only global aerosol drug delivery system which mitigates the transmission of patient-generated infectious aerosol during ventilation.

Aerogen is focused on working with pharmaceutical companies worldwide to meet the current global demand for inhaled delivery of antiviral drugs.

Aerogen is specialised in the design, manufacture and commercialisation of aerosol drug delivery systems.