Sunshine Biopharma Inc. announced the signing of an exclusive worldwide license agreement with the University of Arizona. The License Agreement grants Sunshine Biopharma exclusive worldwide rights for all of the University of Arizona and University of Illinois Chicago technology pertaining to PLpro protease inhibitors of SARS- CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Sunshine Biopharma has been working on this project in collaboration with the University of Arizona since February 2022. The collaboration granted Sunshine Biopharma an exclusive option to obtain a license for the related technology. Specifically, the licensed technology covers small molecules which have been shown to be efficient inhibitors of PLpro, the second coronavirus protease responsible for suppression of the human immune system thereby making the SARS-CoV-2 virus capable of causing more severe illness.
Paxlovid®, an inhibitor for the first protease of SARS-CoV-2 (Mpro) has recently received emergency use authorization from the FDA. Sunshine Biopharma believes that an inhibitor for the second protease will provide another target to combat the virus and help mitigate the occurrence of possible resistance events.