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RedHill Biopharma Secures Allowance of Key Chinese Patent Application for Proprietary COVID-19 Treatment, RHB-107

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Strong Use of Composition-of-Matter Coverage: Patent protects the molecular structure of RHB-107, providing market exclusivity beyond method-of-use claims

COVID-19 Therapeutic Use: Includes coverage for treatment of SARS-CoV-2, including wild-type and emerging variants

This patent grant enhances RedHill’s strategic positioning in the global COVID-19 therapeutic space, a market still expected to be worth more than $3 billion in 2025[1], and expands its patent footprint in Asia, a key pharmaceutical market 

RHB-107 successfully met the primary endpoint of safety and tolerability, delivering promising reduction in hospitalization efficacy results in a U.S. Phase 2 COVID-19 study[2]. Additional clinical data expected from the externally non-dilutive funded PROTECT study, supported by the U.S. Department of Defense

RHB-107 is a novel, patient-friendly oral, once-daily, host-directed potential broad-acting antiviral expected to act independently of viral spike protein mutations[3]

RALEIGH, N.C. and TEL-AVIV, Israel, April 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — RedHill Biopharma Ltd. (Nasdaq: RDHL) (“RedHill” or the “Company”), a specialty biopharmaceutical company, today announced that the China National Intellectual Property Administration (“CNIPA”) has formally allowed a critical use of composition-of-matter patent for RedHill’s proprietary investigational compound RHB-107 (upamostat), a potential oral treatment for COVID-19 (patent application No. 202311591091.6).

“This newly allowed Chinese patent application is a significant success, enhancing RedHill’s strategic positioning in the global COVID-19 therapeutic space – a market still expected to be worth more than three billion dollars in 2025. It provides broad and robust protection of the use of RHB-107, including its structure in oral formulations targeting SARS-CoV-2 infections, including both wild-type and naturally occurring variants and expanding its patent footprint in Asia, a key pharmaceutical market,” said Guy Goldberg, RedHill’s Chief Business Officer. “It underscores the uniqueness of our antiviral candidate and further strengthens our global intellectual property portfolio as we advance development of a much-needed oral candidate for early, community-based (non-hospitalized) treatment of COVID-19, which still represents a considerable threat to vulnerable patients. As a novel, potentially broad-acting, host-directed antiviral that is expected to act independently of viral spike protein mutations, RHB-107, if approved, could provide a much-needed additional option for use in the early COVID-19 treatment space, alongside Pfizer’s Paxlovid.”

Data from RHB-107’s U.S. Phase 2 study, published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, showed a 100% reduction in hospitalization due to COVID-19, with zero patients (0/41) on the RHB-107 arms versus 15% (3/20) hospitalized for COVID-19 on the placebo-controlled arm (nominal p-value=0.0317). The study also showed an approximately 88% reduction in reported new severe COVID-19 symptoms after treatment initiation, with new severe COVID-19 symptoms reported by only 2.4% of the RHB-107 treated group (1/41) compared to 20% (4/20) of patients in the placebo-controlled arm (nominal p-value=0.036). Further post-hoc analysis showed faster recovery periods from severe COVID-19 symptoms with a median of 3 days to recovery with RHB-107 compared to 8 days with placebo. Additional clinical data is expected from the externally non-dilutive funded PROTECT study, supported by the U.S. Department of Defense.

About RHB-107 (upamostat)

RHB-107 is a proprietary, first-in-class, once-daily orally administered investigational antiviral, that targets human serine proteases involved in preparing the spike protein for viral entry into target cells. Because it is host-cell targeted, RHB-107 is expected to also be effective against emerging viral variants with mutations in the spike protein. RHB-107 is well tolerated; in the initial COVID-19 study, among 41 patients only one reported a drug-related adverse reaction (a mild, self-limited, rash).

In addition, RHB-107 inhibits several proteases targeting cancer and inflammatory gastrointestinal disease. RHB-107 has undergone several Phase 1 studies and two Phase 2 studies, demonstrating its clinical safety profile in approximately 200 patients[4].

RedHill acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to RHB-107, excluding China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao, from Germany’s Heidelberg Pharma AG (FSE: HPHA) (formerly WILEX AG) for all indications.

About RedHill Biopharma

RedHill Biopharma Ltd. (Nasdaq: RDHL) is a specialty biopharmaceutical company primarily focused on U.S. development and commercialization of drugs for gastrointestinal diseases, infectious diseases and oncology. RedHill promotes the FDA-approved gastrointestinal drug Talicia, for the treatment of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection in adults[5], with submission planned for marketing authorization in other territories. RedHill’s key clinical late-stage development programs include: (i) opaganib (ABC294640), a first-in-class, orally administered sphingosine kinase-2 (SPHK2) selective inhibitor with anticancer, anti-inflammatory and antiviral activity, targeting multiple indications with U.S. Government and academic collaborations for development for radiation and chemical exposure indications such as Gastrointestinal-Acute Radiation Syndrome (GI-ARS), a Phase 2 study in prostate cancer in combination with Bayer’s darolutamide and a Phase 2/3 program for hospitalized COVID-19 patients; (ii) RHB-204, an all-in-one, fixed-dose, orally administered, combination antibiotic therapy with a planned Phase 2 study for Crohn’s disease and Phase 3-stage for pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) disease; (iii) RHB-104, with positive results from a first Phase 3 study for Crohn’s disease; (iv) RHB-107 (upamostat), an oral broad-acting, host-directed, serine protease inhibitor with potential for pandemic preparedness, is in late-stage development as a treatment for non-hospitalized symptomatic COVID-19 and is also targeting multiple other cancer and inflammatory gastrointestinal diseases; and (v) RHB-102, with potential UK submission for chemotherapy and radiotherapy induced nausea and vomiting, positive results from a Phase 3 study for acute gastroenteritis and gastritis and positive results from a Phase 2 study for IBS-D. RHB-102 is partnered with Hyloris Pharma (EBR: HYL) for worldwide development and commercialization outside North America.

More information about the Company is available at: www.redhillbio.com / twitter.com/RedHillBio.

Forward Looking Statement

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and may discuss investment opportunities, stock analysis, financial performance, investor relations, and market trends. Such statements may be preceded by the words “intends,” “may,” “will,” “plans,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “projects,” “predicts,” “estimates,” “aims,” “believes,” “hopes,” “potential” or similar words. Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company’s control and cannot be predicted or quantified, and consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation: market and other conditions; the Company’s ability to regain and maintain compliance with the Nasdaq Capital Market’s listing requirements; the risk that the addition of new revenue generating products or out-licensing transactions will not occur; the risk of current uncertainty regarding U.S. government research and development funding and that the U.S. government is under no obligation to continue to support development of our products and can cease such support at any time; the risk that the CNIPA does not grant the patent in a timely manner or at all; the risk that acceptance onto the RNCP Product Development Pipeline or other governmental and non-governmental development programs will not guarantee ongoing development or that any such development will not be completed or successful; the risk that the FDA does not agree with the Company’s proposed development plans for its programs; the risk that the Company’s development programs and studies may not be successful and, even if successful, such studies and results may not be sufficient for regulatory applications, including emergency use or marketing applications, and that additional studies may be required; the risk of market and other conditions and that the Company will not successfully commercialize its products; as well as risks and uncertainties associated with (i) the initiation, timing, progress and results of the Company’s research, manufacturing, pre-clinical studies, clinical trials, and other therapeutic candidate development efforts, and the timing of the commercial launch of its commercial products and ones it may acquire or develop in the future; (ii) the Company’s ability to advance its therapeutic candidates into clinical trials or to successfully complete its pre-clinical studies or clinical trials or the development of any necessary commercial companion diagnostics; (iii) the extent and number and type of additional studies that the Company may be required to conduct and the Company’s receipt of regulatory approvals for its therapeutic candidates, and the timing of other regulatory filings, approvals and feedback; (iv) the manufacturing, clinical development, commercialization, and market acceptance of the Company’s therapeutic candidates and Talicia®; (v) the Company’s ability to successfully commercialize and promote Talicia®; (vi) the Company’s ability to establish and maintain corporate collaborations; (vii) the Company’s ability to acquire products approved for marketing in the U.S. that achieve commercial success and build its own marketing and commercialization capabilities; (viii) the interpretation of the properties and characteristics of the Company’s therapeutic candidates and the results obtained with its therapeutic candidates in research, pre-clinical studies or clinical trials; (ix) the implementation of the Company’s business model, strategic plans for its business and therapeutic candidates; (x) the scope of protection the Company is able to establish and maintain for intellectual property rights covering its therapeutic candidates and its ability to operate its business without infringing the intellectual property rights of others; (xi) parties from whom the Company licenses its intellectual property defaulting in their obligations to the Company; (xii) estimates of the Company’s expenses, future revenues, capital requirements and needs for additional financing; (xiii) the effect of patients suffering adverse experiences using investigative drugs under the Company’s Expanded Access Program; (xiv) competition from other companies and technologies within the Company’s industry; and (xv) the hiring and employment commencement date of executive managers. More detailed information about the Company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is set forth in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Company’s Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC on April 10, 2025. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date of this press release. The Company assumes no obligation to update any written or oral forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise unless required by law.

Category: R&D

[1] https://www.cognitivemarketresearch.com/covid-19-therapeutics-market-report
[2] A randomized, placebo-controlled pilot study of upamostat, a host-directed serine protease inhibitor, for outpatient treatment of COVID-19 Plasse, Terry F et al. International Journal of Infectious Diseases, Volume 128, 148 – 156.
[3] Preliminary data from a recent in vitro study.
[4] https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(22)00638-5/fulltext.
[5] Talicia® (omeprazole magnesium, amoxicillin and rifabutin) is indicated for the treatment of H. pylori infection in adults. For full prescribing information see: www.Talicia.com.

Company contact:

Adi Frish
Chief Corporate & Business Development Officer
RedHill Biopharma
+972-54-6543-112
adi@redhillbio.com

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1334141/RedHill_Biopharma_Logo.jpg

 

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Qued Partners with Don Hummer Trucking to Bring AI-Powered Smart Appointments to a Family Fleet Trusted for More Than 70 Years

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Family-owned Iowa truckload carrier has confirmed more than 10,000 appointments through Qued, with email scheduling handled at a 98.8% success rate

BROADLANDS, Va., July 21, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Qued, a leader in developing sophisticated, automated appointment scheduling solutions for supply chain and logistics companies, today announced a strategic partnership with Don Hummer Trucking Corporation, a family-owned interstate truckload carrier trusted by some of the nation’s most recognizable brands. Don Hummer Trucking has deployed Qued’s Smart Appointments platform to automate appointment scheduling across its operations, taking manual booking work off the desks of the people who keep its trucks moving.

Every load delivered safely and on time carries the opportunity to earn our customer’s trust. Qued took a job that used to eat hours of our team’s day and quietly handles it in the background.

The numbers behind the announcement:

More than 10,000 appointments confirmed through Qued94.2% confirmation rate98.8% success rate on email-based scheduling

Qued’s platform selects the best appointment slots in real time, weighing ETAs, facility capacity, historical performance, and the specific requirements of each location. It connects directly to the transportation management system a carrier already runs, and it works on every channel a facility can require: web portals, email, and AI-powered voice calls. At Don Hummer Trucking, email scheduling has been the standout, with Qued handling email-based appointment requests at a 98.8% success rate.

“Don Hummer Trucking is the kind of company this industry is built on. The president holds a CDL and delivers loads. The family name rides on every trailer,” said Tom Curee, President of Qued. “When a three-generation fleet with that much on the line trusts Qued with its appointments, we take it seriously. Hummer’s confirmation numbers show what disciplined operators get when real automation goes to work on scheduling.”

“Every load delivered safely and on time carries the opportunity to earn our customer’s trust. Qued took a job that used to eat hours of our team’s day and quietly handles it in the background. Confirmations happen, trucks keep moving, and our people stay focused on drivers and customers,” said Jake Von Feldt, Vice President of Finance at Don Hummer Trucking.

Don Hummer Trucking joins a growing roster of asset-based carriers on Qued, from family fleets to some of the largest carriers in North America.

About Qued:

Qued is a cloud-based, AI-powered smart workflow automation platform transforming load appointment scheduling for brokers, 3PLs, and carriers. By automating the scheduling process, Qued eliminates manual work, simplifies multi-stop load appointments, and ensures seamless coordination across the supply chain, improving both operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. For more information, visit www.qued.com or contact us at contact.us@qued.com.

About Don Hummer Trucking:

Don Hummer Trucking Corporation is a family-owned and operated, for-hire interstate truckload carrier headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with terminal operations in Homestead, Iowa. The Hummer name has been trusted in freight transportation for more than 70 years, and the company today serves many of the largest shippers in the country. For more information, visit www.donhummertrucking.com.

Media Contact

Adam Robinson, The Robinson Agency, 1 2148720780, adam@the-robinson-agency.com, The Robinson Agency 

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Bank of America Enhances EricaAssist with Generative AI to Help Employees Resolve Client Needs Faster

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New AI capabilities deliver relevant insights in seconds, helping employees provide more personalized client service in real-time

Key takeaways

More than 18,000 employees use EricaAssist as a human-assisted AI agent to help serve clients.
New Generative AI (Gen AI) capabilities deliver contextual guidance in under three seconds, helping resolve client needs faster and supporting decision making by customer service representatives.
EricaAssist reduces average call times by nearly one minute per interaction, improving efficiency and client experience.

CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Bank of America (BofA) today announced enhancements to EricaAssist, its human assisted AI agent that supports employees during client conversations, delivering real time insights that help resolve client needs faster while keeping the employee at the center of the experience.

Used by more than 18,000 customer service representatives, EricaAssist works alongside employees during calls – summarizing and surfacing relevant guidance in real time – so employees can focus on listening to and understanding clients, explaining solutions, and building stronger relationships. The enhancements are making our human agents better and providing our customers with an improved and more efficient experience.

“EricaAssist reflects our high tech, high touch approach,” said Ashley Ross, Head of Consumer Client Experience and Business Transformation at Bank of America. “By combining human judgment with real time AI guidance, we’re helping employees navigate complex topics more easily and serve clients more effectively in the moments that matter most.”

Bank of America customer service representatives use generative AI capabilities within EricaAssist to summarize why a client is calling, pull together relevant information, and recommend next steps based on the employee’s role and the client’s relationship with the bank – all without interrupting the flow of the conversation.

“This technology helps our teammates deliver relevant insights in seconds, while operating with strong governance, transparency, and accountability,” said Tom Ellis, Chief Information Officer and Head of Consumer Technology at Bank of America.

Later this year, Bank of America plans to expand EricaAssist to support additional servicing scenarios and business lines.

Frequently asked questions

Question: Why enhance EricaAssist with GenAI capabilities?

Answer: Enhancing EricaAssist reflects the bank’s focus on continuously improving how employees access and deliver personalized guidance and resolve client needs faster.

Question: How do EricaAssist enhancements reflect Bank of America’s broader investments in technology?

Answer: Bank of America spends $14 billion annually on technology, of which more than $4 billion is allocated to new initiatives, including AI. These ongoing investments, combined with our high-tech, high-touch approach, continue to enhance our client experiences across all channels and to drive operational efficiencies across the company.

Question: Why blend AI with employee decision making?

Answer: Our responsible AI strategy ensures human oversight, transparency, and accountability for all outcomes. By leveraging AI at scale across our global operations, we are optimizing performance and improving client experiences. EricaAssist works alongside employees, supporting their decision-making and service. Employees ensure clients receive thoughtful guidance, with AI operating within established governance and oversight.

Bank of America
Bank of America is one of the world’s leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving nearly 70 million clients with approximately 3,500 retail financial centers, approximately 15,000 ATMs (automated teller machines) and award-winning digital banking with approximately 60 million verified digital users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. As the #1 small business lender in the United States (FDIC), Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 4 million small business households through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations across the United States, its territories and more than 35 countries and/or jurisdictions. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more Bank of America news, including dividend announcements and other important information, visit the Bank of America newsroom and register for news email alerts.

Reporters may contact
Catherine Page, Bank of America
Phone: 1.704.519.7314
catherine.page@bofa.com

Don Vecchiarello, Bank of America
Phone: 1.980.387.4899
don.vecchiarello@bofa.com

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Sonilo and fal Launch Sound Effects 1.0 for Realistic Sound Effects from Video and Text

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Exclusive API co-launch brings Video-to-Sound Effects and Text-to-Sound Effects generation to developers through fal

SAN FRANCISCO, July 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Sonilo, a generative audio company building video-native sound and music models, and fal, the generative media platform for developers and enterprises, today announced the launch of Sonilo Sound Effects 1.0, a new model that generates highly realistic sound effects from video or text.

With video input, Sound Effects 1.0 analyzes what is happening on screen and generates one finished audio track synced to the motion, timing and scene. With text input, developers and creators can describe a specific sound effect and generate it directly.

fal will serve as the model’s exclusive API launch partner during its initial launch period, providing developers with day zero access through fal’s production-ready infrastructure.

Sound Effects 1.0 is designed to address one of the most persistent gaps in AI video production: footage can look complete while still requiring significant manual work before it sounds complete.

When given a video, the model analyzes on-screen motion, scene context, environments, and timing before generating audio that follows what is happening on screen.

Instead of returning a collection of disconnected audio assets that still need to be placed and aligned one by one, Sound Effects 1.0 can produce a synchronized audio track that is ready to review, refine and add to the edit.

“Sound effects only work when they feel like they belong in the scene,” said Trista Hong, Co-Founder of Sonilo. “Sound Effects 1.0 was built around that complete problem: understanding the footage, generating realistic audio, and synchronizing it automatically. We’re excited to launch it together with fal and bring video-native sound into real production workflows.”

A Sound Model Built Around the Video

Traditional sound-design workflows typically begin outside the footage. Editors search sound libraries, preview multiple assets, place them on a timeline, align each effect to the appropriate frame, adjust levels and repeat the process across every action in the scene.

Sound Effects 1.0 begins with the video itself.

The model uses the footage as both a source of semantic information and the timing foundation for the generated audio. It determines what is happening in the scene, what sounds are appropriate for those events and when those sounds should occur.

This video-native approach is particularly useful for scenes containing multiple actions, transitions, impacts and environmental details. Rather than requiring creators to build the sound layer one asset at a time, the model can generate audio around the structure of the footage as a whole.

Sound Effects 1.0 supports video inputs of up to three minutes, making it suitable for short-form content, advertisements, gaming footage, product videos and longer narrative scenes.

Automatic Generation When Speed Matters, Prompt Control When Direction Matters

Sound Effects 1.0 supports two complementary generation workflows.

Video-to-Sound-Effects analyzes uploaded footage and generates sound effects matched to its visible actions, environments and timing.

Text-to-Sound-Effects generates specific standalone sounds from written descriptions, giving creators and developers direct control when they need a particular audio asset.

Prompts are optional in the video workflow. Users can allow the model to interpret footage automatically or provide a prompt requesting a particular sound, emphasis or creative direction.

The prompt helps shape what the model generates, while the video continues to determine when the sound should occur.

This gives users two practical modes of working: automatic sound generation when speed and coverage are the priority, and prompt-guided generation when a scene requires more precise creative control.

Bringing Video-Native Sound Generation to Developers through fal

The co-launch gives developers access to Sound Effects 1.0 through fal’s generative media infrastructure, allowing video-conditioned sound generation to be incorporated directly into products and production workflows.

Developers can use the model to build synchronized sound generation into:

AI video editors and generation platforms;Short-form and social video tools;Advertising and branded-content workflows;Game prototypes, gameplay videos and cinematics;Film and narrative-production pipelines; andMultimodal creator products that combine video, music and sound.

“We’re entering a new era where AI applications don’t just generate assets, they produce complete experiences,” said Tina Sang, Head of Marketing at fal. “Sound is fundamental to making those experiences believable. Sonilo Sound Effects 1.0 helps developers generate context-aware, synchronized audio that matches what’s happening on screen, and we’re very excited to bring it to fal, day zero.”

The integration is designed to let teams move from initial testing to product deployment without building and operating a separate model-serving stack. Developers can access the model through fal’s API and developer tooling while keeping sound generation inside the same environment as their broader generative media workflows.

Expanding the Sonilo and fal Partnership

The launch expands an existing relationship between Sonilo and fal.

Sonilo Music v1.1 is already available through fal, giving developers access to both Video-to-Music and Text-to-Music generation. Sound Effects 1.0 extends that integration from generated music into highly realistic, video-conditioned sound effects.

Using the same source footage, creators and developers can generate sound effects around visible actions and environments, then generate music informed by the video’s pacing, scene changes, mood and timing.

This creates a broader video-first audio workflow in which a single video can serve as the timing foundation for both sound design and music. Sound effects can follow what happens on screen, while music can follow the emotional and structural movement of the edit.

By connecting both layers around the source footage, Sonilo aims to reduce manual synchronization, repetitive asset placement and unnecessary switching between separate audio tools.

Built for Real Production Workflows

For AI video creators, Sound Effects 1.0 can add action cues, environmental details, movement and transitions to generated footage that otherwise arrives without usable audio.

For high-volume creators and gaming channels, the model can reduce repetitive timeline work across content requiring dense sound design, including impacts, interface sounds, room tone and movement.

For filmmakers and narrative teams, it can generate scene-level elements such as footsteps, doors, physical interactions and ambience directly from an edit.

For brands and advertising teams, it can produce precisely timed audio around product interactions, camera transitions, packaging moments and visual reveals.

For platforms and API products, it provides a way to add video-conditioned sound generation without requiring users to leave the product and assemble audio in a separate editing workflow.

About Sonilo

Sonilo builds video-native generative audio models for creators, developers and media platforms. Its technology generates music and sound effects directly from footage or text, helping teams bring audio into the video-creation workflow and reduce manual timeline work. Sonilo is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by B Capital.

Learn more at https://sonilo.com/.

About fal

fal is a generative media platform that provides developers with access to the world’s best generative image, video, and audio models through a unified API. Trusted by over 2.5 million developers and leading companies, fal offers the fastest inference engine for diffusion models, on-demand serverless GPUs, and dedicated compute clusters for frontier research. Learn more at fal.ai.

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