Special Report: Incannex Healthcare (ASX:IHL) says its hydroxychloroquine/cannabidiol combination drug IHL-675A is vastly outperforming CBD alone in fighting inflammation in preclinical laboratory tests.
IHL-675A reduced inflammation by twofold to eightfold times more than CBD alone did in tests on human blood cells stimulated by bacteria, Incannex says.
The tests were conducted by laboratory testing company Eurofins, which measured the cytokine levels in the blood cells after 24 hours.
Incannex is hoping that the drug cocktail could be used to fight a range of inflammatory conditions, including sepsis-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a leading cause of death in COVID-19 patients.
“As a company, we set out to gain evidence that our proprietary combination of CBD and HCQ would exhibit significant synergistic outperformance against the individual constituents,” said Incannex Healthcare Joel Latham.
“Not only have we managed to achieve this, but we have significantly outperformed against our predictions of anti-inflammatory activity in the IHL-675A combination drug.
“Potentially, this could mean that IHL-675A is a better alternative to CBD oil products for inflammatory diseases, subject to further examination.”
The company plans to use the data from this in vitro (test tube) data to inform its study using IHL-675A to treat inflammation in mice, which has already commenced.
The results of that study will determine the company’s next steps as it pursues a United States Food and Drug Administration “emergency use authorisation” application.
Incannex has expanded its provision application for patent protection to cover a range of other inflammatory diseases that represent additional opportunities for Incannex.
Obstructive sleep apnoea phase 2 clinical trial
As previously reported, Incannex has also received ethics approval to begin a clinical trial testing its oral drug candidate IHL-42X to treat obstructive sleep apnoea, a condition that affects as many as 30 million people in the USA alone.
The company says its randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial will be held at Alfred Hospital, with patient recruitment expected to begin soon.
Incannex says a positive result in the trial “would be a major valuation inflection point” for the Melbourne-based biotech company.
This article was developed in collaboration with Incannex, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.