Cocrystal Pharma, Inc. announced dosing of the first subjects in a Phase 1 clinical trial with its oral, first-in-class pan-norovirus and pan-coronavirus 3CL protease inhibitor CDI-988. This pan-viral protease inhibitor was discovered using the Company's proprietary structure-based drug discovery platform technology. The Phase 1 study will evaluate the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of oral CDI-988 in single ascending doses (SAD) including food effect cohort, and multiple ascending doses (MAD) compared to placebo in healthy volunteers.

Recent CDI-988 in vitro studies showed potent broad-spectrum antiviral activity against a panel of pandemic GII.4 norovirus proteases and a favorable pharmacokinetic property targeting the gastrointestinal tract. GII.4 proteases have caused the majority of norovirus outbreaks worldwide since 2002. CDI-988 was specifically designed and developed as a broad-spectrum antiviral inhibitor using Cocrystal's proprietary structure-based Drug discovery platform technology.

It targets a highly conserved region in the active site of noroviruses, noroviruses and other 3CL viral proteases. Cocrystal is approved to conduct a CDI-988 Phase 1 study in Australia by that country's Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC).