Benzinga | Oct 15, 2020 08:12AM EDT

Eiger BioPharmaceuticals Announces Results Of Investigator Sponsored Randomized Controlled Trial At University Of Toronto With Peginterferon Lambda In Outpatients With Mild To Moderate COVID-19

- Lambda significantly accelerated viral decline

- Viral clearance highly correlated with baseline viral loads

- All Lambda-treated patients were below the infectivity threshold by Day 7

PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Eiger BioPharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:EIGR), focused on the development and commercialization of targeted therapies for serious rare and ultra-rare diseases, today announced results of the ILIAD Study (Interferon Lambda for Immediate Antiviral Therapy at Diagnosis in COVID-19), an investigator sponsored randomized trial of Peginterferon Lambda (Lambda) in outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19 conducted at Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network in Toronto, Canada.

The main efficacy outcomes were viral load decline and the proportion of individuals with a negative nasopharyngeal swab for SARS-CoV-2 at Day 7. A total of 60 patients were randomized 1:1 to a single subcutaneous dose of Lambda 180 mcg or normal saline placebo. Patients were followed for 14 days.

The SARS-CoV-2 RNA viral load decline from baseline was significantly greater in the Lambda group than in the placebo group from Day 5 onwards. After controlling for baseline viral load, those treated with Lambda were 4.1-fold (95% CI 1.2-16.7, p=0.029) more likely to clear by Day 7 than those in the placebo arm. For those with baseline viral load > 6 log copies/mL, the proportion negative at Day 7 in the Lambda group was 15 of 19 (79%) compared to 6 of 16 (38%) in the placebo group (p=0.013). This difference translated into a median time to clearance of 7 days with Lambda compared to 10 days in the placebo group (p=0.038). Consistent with recently reported studies, there was no difference in time to clearance in patients with low baseline viral loads < 6 log copies/mL: 9 of 11 (82%) in the Lambda arm and 13 of 14 (93%) in the placebo arm were negative by Day 7 (p=0.40). Across all patients, by Day 7, 24 of 30 patients (80%) in the Lambda group were negative compared to 19 of 30 (63%) in the placebo arm (p=0.15).

Participants with low viral loads also had milder symptoms at baseline with symptoms improving over time in both groups. Lambda was well-tolerated with few adverse events, which included minimal elevations of transaminases which self-resolved.

"This is one of the first randomized controlled trials showing a significant effect on COVID-19 in an ambulatory setting. We are excited about these results showing that peginterferon lambda accelerates viral load decline in outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19," said Jordan Feld, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine at University of Toronto and Senior Scientist at Toronto Centre for Liver Disease and Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. "Lambda works particularly well in patients with high baseline viral loads. Our cutoff of 6 log copies/mL was prospectively chosen as this correlates with the threshold for infectivity and the likely need for treatment. Importantly, all Lambda-treated patients were below levels of shedding infectious virus by Day 7. We look forward to the results of our ongoing Lambda investigator sponsored studies in hospitalized patients with more advanced COVID-19."