Valeo Pharma Inc. (TSX: VPH) (OTCQB: VPHIF) (FSE: VP2), a Canada-based pharmaceutical company, announced on Wednesday that it has signed a Commercial Services Agreement with Veru Inc for COVID-19 treatment sabizabulin in Canada.

The product is a novel dual antiviral and anti-inflammatory agent that is intended to treat hospitalised moderate-severe COVID-19 patients at high risk for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and death.

The sabizabulin Phase 3 COVID-19 clinical trial, a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial, was carried out in 204 hospitalised COVID-19 patients with moderate to severe COVID and at high risk for ARDS and death. The primary endpoint of the study was the percentage of deaths by Day 60. Patients in both treatment groups were enabled to receive standard of care treatment that included remdesivir, dexamethasone, anti-IL6 receptor antibodies and JAK inhibitors. The Independent Data Monitoring Committee unanimously stopped the study for clear clinical efficacy and no safety concerns were identified. This was done based on a planned interim analysis of the first 150 patients randomised.

Treatment of subjects with sabizabulin 9mg once daily resulted in a clinically meaningful and statistically significant 55.2% relative decrease in deaths compared to placebo.