Skymount Medical, in collaboration with Louisiana State University announced that human studies have begun on the unique combination of therapies for COVID-19 patients. The move comes to reduce the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients rises around the world, particularly in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil and India.
SM-19, as it is known, is expected to eliminate ICU visits and drastically reduce the chances of developing long term conditions associated with the virus.
The medication was discovered using an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that significantly decreased the time to drug discovery. Pre-clinical cell and animal test results estimate an efficacy rate of 97% and these FDA approved medications under investigation are expected to become available to the public shortly.
“We are optimistic that the treatments will reduce extreme symptoms in humans and the need for hospitalizations,” states Dr. Kishor M. Wasan, co-inventor and chief medical and scientific officer for Skymount Medical.” These experimental outcomes provide a complement approach to the current COVID-19 vaccine strategy that is cost-effective, safe, and accessible to patients.”
The SM-19 treatment is expected to be effective against several COVID-19 variants and decrease viral load and long-term symptoms. At present, there are no approved oral medications to decrease COVID-19 symptoms in people who have not been hospitalized.
“The discovery of these medications came through a highly unique and novel process fusing AI with traditional wet lab pharmacology,” said Chris Galliano, co-inventor and chief technology officer of Skymount Medical. He said that the Louisiana State University’s AI based drug discovery platform has enabled Skymount Medical to directly target symptoms using a time saving strategy.
Dr. Supratik Mukhopadhyay, co-inventor and associate professor in the LSU Department of Computer Science. “Starting human studies is exciting because we wouldn’t be at this step if early studies didn’t indicate high levels of efficacy and validate the data produced by AI,” he said.
Compassionate use tests of the medications began on August 10/2021 and are expected to continue throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, India and Brazil. The test is a randomized and controlled study which will evaluate the efficacy and safety of SM-19 in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.