Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

EIDD-2801 is licensed to Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. The question is...why such a small, obscure bio? This doesn't inspire confidence...

Emory presumably shopped this compound, so the fact that they licensed it to a no-name company that hardly seems capable of serious drug development is telling. It was mood deflating to see this after reading the initial post of yours in this thread, which seemed like it was reporting a bona fide breakthrough.

This is Ridgeback’s PR from 3/19/20 on licensing EIDD-2801:

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ridgeback-biotherapeutics-and-drug-innovations-ventures-at-emory-partner-to-develop-clinical-stage-coronavirus-treatment-301027190.html

Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP, a closely held biotechnology company, and Drug Innovations at Emory (DRIVE), LLC, a not-for-profit biotechnology company wholly owned by Emory University, today announced a collaboration to rapidly advance DRIVE's EIDD-2801, a promising oral COVID-19 treatment, into human testing.

This collaboration combines Ridgeback's unique experience advancing drug development efforts in the midst of an on-going disease outbreak with the three decades of experience that the DRIVE executive team has in antiviral drug development and commercialization.

Under the collaboration, Ridgeback has exclusively licensed DRIVE's EIDD-2801, a promising potential coronavirus treatment for COVID-19, which has broad spectrum activity against a number of diseases of extreme public health concern, including influenza, SARS, MERS, chikungunya, and equine encephalitis (VEE and EEE). EIDD-2801 prevents the replication of multiple strains of coronavirus in vitro, and has been shown to have potent activity against SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV in animal models of infection.

Ridgeback Biotherapeutics will be responsible for advancing this promising therapeutic through clinical development and ensuring that EIDD-2801 is available during the current pandemic.

Sigh.