Anixa Biosciences, Inc. announced that the company and its partner, MolGenie GmbH, have synthesized a compound that appears to be considerably more potent than nirmatrelvir at inhibiting Mpro, the main protease of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Nirmatrelvir is the main component of Pfizer's PAXLOVID which was recently authorized to treat COVID-19. PAXLOVID also includes ritonavir, which is an HIV drug.

Since the crystal structure of Mpro of SARS-CoV-2 was published, Anixa has worked in partnership with MolGenie to identify compounds that could inhibit this enzyme. Notably, the program is not reliant on targeting the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Recently identified variants, like Delta and Omicron, are characterized by mutations in the spike protein, but Mpro is largely conserved across all of these variants.

Therefore, Anixa expects its compounds will be effective against all the currently known variants.