Catalent has collaborated with speciality pharmaceutical company Ennaid Therapeutics for the development of an oral and antiviral treatment for Covid-19 disease.

As per terms of the deal, Catalent will involve in the development of a powder-in-capsule formulation for Ennaid’s ENU200 programme. Ennaid’s ENU200 is a patent-pending and repurposed oral antiviral drug.

Ennaid has selected ENU200 as a candidate to treat Covid-19 following a bioinformatic search for in silico detection of prior-approved chemical compounds blocking the coronavirus proteins, spike-S glycoprotein, and the crucial coronavirus enzyme, Mpro.

Catalent’s development site, located in San Diego, will produce roller-compacted formulations of ENU200 within capsules for further evaluation.

Catalent’s San Diego facility is said to be one of three global centres of excellence in early-phase development working on preclinical to clinical phase 2b formulation, analytical, and manufacturing solutions for orally delivered small molecules.

The company’s other two facilities are situated in Somerset of New Jersey and Nottingham of the UK.

Catalent oral and speciality delivery president Jonathan Arnold said: “During this pandemic, we have seen that numerous companies are looking to repurpose existing antiviral drugs to target COVID-19, and we are supporting our development partners in reacting quickly and effectively to manufacture material for clinical trials.

“Our experience with similar formulation and manufacturing processes and overcoming scale-up challenges with roller compaction has meant that we are able to rapidly deliver Ennaid’s demand for drug product in a matter of weeks.”

In February this year, US-based Catalent agreed to acquire cell therapy company MaSTherCell Global for $315m in cash.

Established in 2011, MaSTherCell Global is a technology-focused cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) that serves cell therapy innovators.

Catalent offers advanced delivery technologies, development, and manufacturing solutions for drugs, biologics, cell and gene therapies, and consumer health products.

Ennaid is engaged in the development of broad-spectrum antiviral drugs to treat diseases in the Flaviviridae and Coronaviridae family of viruses, specifically SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19 disease.