ENA Respiratory, a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing host defence enhancers for the prevention of complications associated with respiratory viral infections in at-risk populations, has been awarded AUD $2,980,000 in funding from Australia’s Biointelect Venturer as part of its inaugural funding round.
The funding will support a first-in-patients study in Australia of INNA-051, in patients with asthma.
The phase 1b study (ENA-A-04) will be a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study evaluating the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of intranasal INNA-051 in adults with asthma. The trial is expected to start in quarter one in 2027.
Currently in a phase 2a community study in the USA, INNA-051 is a virus-agnostic, once-weekly, dry powder nasal spray that primes the natural antiviral host defences in the nose where common respiratory viruses like colds, flu, RSV and coronaviruses primarily enter, enabling the body to respond more quickly when challenged. INNA-051 therapy aims to reduce the incidence of complications in patients at higher risk of severe illness.
Biointelect Venturer is Australia’s new national incubator for vaccine and infectious disease innovation, funded by the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) through the 2024 BioMedTech Incubator Grant Opportunity.
Asthma is characterised by an intrinsic delay in innate antiviral responses, which allows viruses to spread to the lower respiratory tract, driving uncontrolled airway inflammation and worsening clinical symptoms. Preclinical and safety pharmacology studies have demonstrated that intranasally delivered INNA-051 is not expected to exacerbate asthma and has the potential to restore the innate immune response and significantly reduce rhinovirus load in ex vivo bronchial epithelial cells derived from donors with moderate-to-severe asthma. These findings support the continued development of INNA-051 for this patient population.
ENA Respiratory is currently conducting a phase 2 study evaluating the safety, tolerability and efficacy of a once-weekly treatment with INNA-051 for up to three months and assessing its impact on the incidence, duration and severity of symptomatic infections caused by common respiratory viruses, including influenza, RSV, rhinovirus and coronaviruses in young adult participants at risk of illness due to living or working in crowded environments. The first stage of the study was successfully completed in May 2026 and part B is expected to start dosing in the next North American respiratory virus season.
