Island Pharmaceuticals (ASX: ILA) has been granted membership into the US-based Medical Countermeasures Coalition (MC2), marking an important milestone in its strategy to advance lead candidate galidesivir as a critical countermeasure against high-priority virus threats.
MC2 is an international alliance of non-profit organisations, academic groups, and industry partners that aims to advance the development, accessibility, and deployment of medical countermeasures including vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and related technologies.
Island expects coalition membership to assist its pursuit of inclusion for galidesivir in the US government’s Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) repository of critical medical supplies.
International Alliance
MC2 was established to protect global populations against emerging infectious diseases, pandemics, and biological threats, as well as strengthen preparedness and response systems.
It does so by promoting supportive policies, encouraging research funding, and ensuring that lifesaving countermeasures can be rapidly deployed as needed.
The MC2 board comprises former senior US government biodefence officials and industry executives with decades of experience in the development and deployment of medical countermeasures.
Current coalition members include biotechnology companies and suppliers to the SNS such as SIGA Technologies, Bavarian Nordic, Ginkgo BioWorks Holdings, CSL Seqirus, and Genentech.
Anti-Viral Molecule
Galidesivir is a clinical-stage intravenous anti-viral molecule with a broad spectrum of activity in over 20 RNA viruses with unmet medical needs and the potential to be national security threats, including Ebola, Marburg, MERS, Zika, and Yellow fever.
++Island acquired the galidesivir anti-viral program++ from US-based BioCryst Pharmaceuticals earlier this year after an extensive due diligence process that included a dataset review and collaboration with consultants to define a pathway for regulatory approvals.
Island’s inclusion in MC2 follows the appointment of US-based firm Todd Strategy Group (TSG) to help accelerate the company’s US government engagement and assist in identifying non-dilutive funding strategies.
TSG will also provide strategic context on federal processes, agency activities, and congressional considerations relevant to the broader medical countermeasure enterprise to ensure Island remains well-informed and appropriately positioned as the government refines its priorities across emerging infectious disease threats.
National Security Validation
Island chief executive officer Dr David Foster said membership was a validation of galidesivir’s importance to national security.
“This coalition brings together globally-recognised experts in biodefence, health-security, and medical countermeasure deployment and will assist to strengthen our engagement across the US government,” he said.
“We are now well positioned to leverage a number of experts across these fields, as well as engage with existing SNS providers to continue advancing the galidesivir program towards near-term regulatory, clinical and stockpiling milestones.”
