Traws Pharma, Inc. recently announced the dosing of the first subject in a Phase 2 study to evaluate ratutrelvir, a ritonavir-free anti-viral treatment in newly diagnosed COVID subjects.

“The first trial will enable Traws to compare ratutrelvir, a potential best in class ritonavir-free agent, against the current gold standard, PAXLOVID,” said Iain D. Dukes, MA, DPhil, Chief Executive Officer of Traws Pharma. “This study will evaluate safety, as well as rates of infection, COVID symptoms, disease rebound and incidence of Long COVID. In addition, we will initiate a second trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of ratutrelvir in PAXLOVID^®-ineligible patients, a population at risk for poor outcomes from COVID infection with few available treatment options. Our expectation is to be able to report the results of both Phase 2 studies by year-end 2025.”

“Across the US, we see multiple signs that COVID continues to threaten public health, especially among elderly and vulnerable individuals,” added Robert R. Redfield, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Traws Pharma. “We believe that Traws’ ritonavir-free COVID therapeutic candidate, ratutrelvir, has the potential to overcome the shortcomings of current treatments and become the new standard of care. Ratutrelvir’s good overall tolerability allows once-daily, single tablet dosing for 10 days, which could reduce the rate of rebound and the risk of Long COVID. Positive results could provide important proof-of-concept data and represent a valuable inflection point for the program.”

Ratutrelvir is an investigational oral, small molecule Mpro (3CL protease) inhibitor designed to be a broadly acting treatment for SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 that is used without ritonavir. It has demonstrated in vitro activity against a range of virus strains. Preclinical and Phase 1 studies show that ratutrelvir does not require co-administration with a metabolic inhibitor, such as ritonavir, which could avoid ritonavir-associated drug-drug interactions, and potentially enable wider patient use. Phase 1 data also showed that ratutrelvir’s pharmacokinetic (PK) profile demonstrated maintenance of target blood plasma levels approximately 13 times above the EC₅₀ using the target Phase 2 dosing regimen of 600 mg/day for ten days, which may reduce the likelihood of clinical rebound and, consequently, reduce the risk for Long COVID. Industry data indicate that COVID treatment represents a potential multi-billion dollar market opportunity.

Traws Pharma is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing novel therapies to target critical threats to human health in respiratory viral diseases. Traws integrates antiviral drug development, medical intelligence and regulatory strategy to meet real world challenges in the treatment of viral diseases. We are advancing novel investigational oral small molecule antiviral agents that have potent activity against difficult to treat or resistant virus strains that threaten human health: COVID-19/Long COVID and bird flu and seasonal influenza. Ratutrelvir is in development as a ritonavir-independent COVID treatment, targeting the Main protease (Mpro or 3CL protease). Tivoxavir marboxil is in development as a single dose treatment for bird flu and seasonal influenza, targeting the influenza cap-dependent endonuclease (CEN).

Traws is actively seeking development and commercialization partners for its legacy clinical oncology programs, rigosertib and narazaciclib. More details can be found on Traws’ website at https://www.ir.trawspharma.com/partnering.