On Monday, Sorrento Therapeutics received clearance from the FDA to initiate a Phase 2 trial of Abivertinib in patients with COVID-19 who have moderate to severe pulmonary symptoms. That trial could begin as soon as August. 

"If we can help a patient get out of the hospital quickly, that will achieve part of our goal," Dr. Henry Ji, the chairman, president, and CEO of Sorrento Therapeutics, told Cheddar. 

Dr. Mark Brunswick, who also works at Sorrento Therapeutics as the company's SVP of Regulatory Affairs, explained how Abivertinib attacks COVID-19.

"One of the implications of this virus when it goes to late stages is it induces a cytokine storm. The immune system basically goes berserk, secreting cytokines that overwhelm the body, and the body eventually shuts down. What this drug does is it controls the cytokine storm."

Brunswick, who worked in the FDA for more than nine years, says their company is targeting for-profit hospitals during the next phase of trials.

"Because we want to get this done quickly, we are concentrating on for-profit hospitals because they tend to have an IRB (Institutional Review Board), rather than the university-based hospitals, which have a much slower institutional review system." Brunswick added that, under this system, "You have one IRB that can approve multiple different hospitals to then allow many more patients to get treatment rather than each hospital having to review everything on their own."  

As Sorrento Therapeutics continues to test Abivertinib, which already completed a registration trial for lung cancer and has been administered to over 600 patients worldwide, Ji is relying on support from the U.S. government to continue funding his project.

"If you look at all the other companies [involved in fighting] COVID-19, you see the government support is tremendously strong," Ji said, noting the Trump administration has offered to fund large-scale trials and attempts to stock up before product approval. 

"We're very confident we will have the necessary support from our government," said Ji.

Share:
More In Business
Klarna shares jump 30% on Wall Street debut
Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Musk loses crown as world’s richest to software giant Larry Ellison
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
Load More