Has Enlivex found a cure for Corona? “Almost all patients recovered within five days”; The stock soared

Has the long-awaited cure for the coronavirus been found in Israel? The Biomed company Enlivex Therapeutics reported today (Wednesday) very encouraging results in a clinical trial (Phase 2) for the treatment of COVID-19 patients – following the positive results also in the first phase.

The 16 patients in critical and severe conditions were recruited for the second phase trial. Seven patients in severe conditions and the other nine in critical conditions. Most patients aged 40-60 belonged to a risk group. They suffered from obesity, high blood pressure and most of them were men (whose mortality rate from Coronavirus was higher).

14 patients, treated with the drug Allocetra, recovered and were discharged home within 5 days. Two more patients remained respiratory. None of the patients died.

In the first trial, a total of 21 patients were treated with Allocetra. 11 of them in severe condition and 10 in critical condition. 19 recovered (90.5%), and were released home after an average of 5.6 days (patients in severe condition after 4.1 days on average, and patients in critical condition after an average of 7.7 days). None of the patients died.

Two patients are still in critical condition and hospitalized after 28 days in intensive care when connected to a respirator.

The drug Allocetra’s mechanism of action is immune-modulation and is expected to potentially be relevant to COVID-19 severe/critical patients infected by various coronavirus strain mutations.

Enlivex Therapeutics is a clinical-stage immunotherapy company targeting diseased macrophages in patients with sepsis, solid tumors, and COVID-19. 

The drug was developed on the basis of research by Professor Dror Mevorach, director of the Internal Medicine department and the Coronavirus department at Hadassah medical center.

Prof. Mevorach collaborated with Enlivex Therapeutics to produce the drug which has also proved successful in the experimental treatment of patients with sepsis, which is considered a serious disease that has no cure.,

Allocetra is given to patients through an infusion, into which blood cells have begun to die and have been taken from healthy people.

Professor Mevorach explained in an interview that “Allocetra is intended for the treatment of a wide range of cases in which there is overactivity of the immune system, which leads to an increase in the secretion of proteins by immune system cells – called cytokines, thus causing a cytokine storm,” Prof. Mevorach explained. “It works by treating cells taken from a healthy donor in the laboratory in such a way that when injected into the patient’s body, they curb the inflammation or cytokine storm which is very harmful to patients.”

The extreme reaction of the immune system can be fatal. Allocetra actually suppresses the immune response, and thus manages to restore the body to equilibrium. For this reason, Allocetra is intended for the treatment of patients in a critical and severe condition, whose main problem is the fact that the immune system is “out of control”.

Enlivex CEO Oren Hershkovitz and Chairman Shai Novik led the company

Enlivex, which is traded on TASE at a value of NIS 670 million, is engaged in the development of drugs to restore balance to the immune system.

Shares of Enlivex have risen 60% in the last 12 months, and have jumped another 30% today following the announcement.

“We believe the results of the trial, combined with conventional treatment, reflect a unique opportunity for Corona patients in a difficult and critical condition,” Mevorach said in an interview. “The data suggest that Alostra may be used as a safe and effective treatment for macrophage reprogramming (immune system cells, SA) and a solution for organ collapse conditions in the corona patient population and a variety of life-threatening and high mortality clinical indications that do not currently have effective treatments.”