MADRID, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Spanish pharmaceutical company PharmaMar said on Tuesday the peer review journal Science has published a paper that confirms its drug Plitidepsin has a "potent preclinical efficacy" against the COVID-19.

A study carried out in vitro and in vivo by a team of scientists in New York, San Francisco and Paris showed the drug leads to a reduction of viral replication, resulting in a 99% reduction of viral loads in the lungs of plitidepsin-treated animals, the Science paper reported, according to a PharmaMar statement. "We believe that our data and the initial positive results from PharmaMar’s clinical trial suggests that plitidepsin should be strongly considered for expanded clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19,” Science said.

(Reporting by Inti Landauro, editing by Louise Heavens)