Innovation Pharmaceuticals Inc (IPIX)

[farrell90]

This PR I believe is the first mention of the PHRI and its plans to research Brilacidin.

http://www.ipharminc.com/press-release/2020/5/5/inhibitory-effect-of-innovation-pharmaceuticals-brilacidin-on-sars-cov-2-covid-19-in-primary-human-immune-cells-to-be-studied-at-leading-public-health-research-institute

"This new research is separate from the previously announced antiviral studies being conducted at a U.S. Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL), which over the weekend informed us that the next phase of Brilacidin testing has commenced.

Scientists at the Public Health Research Institute plan to evaluate Brilacidin’s inhibitory effect on SARS-CoV-2 viral replication in primary immune mediators (peripheral blood mononuclear cells, T cells, B cells, monocytes, macrophages) obtained from both young and old donors to assess age-dependent host responses to the novel coronavirus. Brilacidin drug substance has been received by the Institute and is now available for testing."

The PHRI was founded in New York City as a research health center. It later became affiliated with Rutger University.

https://phri.njms.rutgers.edu/

The PHRI has a relationship with the " Bio-Safety Level 3 (BSL3) vivarium and laboratory spaces dedicated to study infectious diseases and highly transmissible pathogenic agents".

https://phri.njms.rutgers.edu/programs-and-resources/bls3-vivarium-facility/

The Rutgers BSL3 lab is one of the national NIH affiliated Biodefense labs.

https://phri.njms.rutgers.edu/programs-and-resources/rutgers-biocontainment-laboratory/

Thersa Chang PHD from the Rutgers PHRI contributed to the article published in Viuses which outlined Brilacidin's anti Covid research

https://phri.njms.rutgers.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty/theresa-chang/

Thersa Chang has published research outling defensins immune modulation attributes.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29501617/

Ding, J.; Chou, Y.Y.; Chang, T.L. Defensins in viral infections.J. Innate Immun.2009,1, 413–420.

Klotman, M.E.; Chang, T.L. Defensins in innate antiviral immunity.Nat. Rev. Immunol.2006,6, 447–456. [CrossRef] [PubMe

She is also credited with being an important contributor to the Viruses article including performing some of the experiments T.L.C.

Author Contributions:Conceptualization, A.B., A.N., T.L.C., W.K.W., and J.A.H.; Methodology,A.B., W.K.W., J.A.H.; A.B., K.R., N.B., F.A., and T.L.C. conducted experiments; Visualization, Formalanalysis, Data curation, A.B., A.N., W.K.W., T.L.C., and J.A.H.; Writing—original draft preparation,A.B., A.N., W.K.W., and J.A.H.; Writing—review and editing, A.B., A.N., W.K.W., and J.A.H.; Projectadministration, A.N., W.K.W., and J.A.H.; Funding acquisition, A.N., W.K.W., and J.A.H. All authorshave read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

GLTA, Farrell