Catalent Enters into Agreement with Ennaid for Oral COVID-19 Treatment

Catalent announced on May 13, 2020 that it is entering into an agreement with Ennaid Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company located in Alpharetta, GA, to further develop Ennaid’s ENU200 program, an oral, antiviral treatment for COVID-19.

Under the terms of the agreement, Catalent will develop a powder-in-capsule formulation of ENU200 at its site in San Diego, CA, a company press release said. The program was selected as a potential COVID-19 treatment candidate after a bioinformatic search for in-silico identification of previously approved chemical compounds were found to block coronavirus proteins.

“During this pandemic we have seen that numerous companies are looking to repurpose existing antiviral drugs to target COVID-19, and we are supporting our development partners in reacting quickly and effectively to manufacture material for clinical trials,” said Jonathan Arnold, president, Oral and Specialty Delivery at Catalent, in the press release. “Our experience with similar formulation and manufacturing processes and overcoming scale up challenges with roller compaction has meant that we are able to rapidly deliver Ennaid’s demand for drug product in a matter of weeks.”

Source: Catalent