Annexin Pharmaceuticals AB (publ) announced that its collaborators at Maastricht University Hospital, Maastricht, The Netherlands, have received approvals from the Dutch regulatory authority and Hospital committees to start a trial with ANXV (a recombinant human Annexin A5) in hospitalised COVID-19 patients. The study follows upon Annexin Pharmaceutical's completed Phase 1 trial of ANXV in healthy volunteers. Annexin A5's potential in viral diseases has been highlighted in multiple high impact scientific publications and very recently Annexin A5 was directly proposed as a drug candidate to reduce the damage observed in the vascular system and lungs of patients with severe disease.

This open-label, standard of care-controlled study will evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and clinical efficacy potential of multiple intravenous doses of ANXV given to approx. 12 patients. The efficacy parameters to be investigated will include heart- and lung-function and markers of hyper-coagulation and -inflammation state.

Dr. Pieter van Paassen will act as Principal Investigator. In this investigator-initiated study Annexin Pharmaceuticals will contribute ANXV, limited patient-related costs and drug-specific documentation and analyses.