(Yicai Global) May 26 -- Shares in Frontier Biotechnologies surged as much as 12 percent today after the Chinese biopharmaceutical company announced that its new drug against the novel coronavirus has been shown to be safe in initial results from first phase clinical tests in the US.

Frontier Biotech’s stock price [SHA:688221] was trading up 0.99 percent at CNY22.38 (USD3.50) at 2 p.m. China time today. Earlier in the day it had reached CNY24.85.

Phase-I clinical trials on the first group of volunteers had good results and the SARS-Cov-2 inhibitor drug has been recommended for a dose escalation in the next round of studies, Nanjing-based Frontier Biotech said, citing the independent data monitoring committee.

The innovative drug, jointly developed by Frontier Biotech, the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has already shown high targeted inhibition of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in animals, the results of which have been published in top academic journal Science, it added.

Frontier Biotech, which holds global rights to the clinical development, manufacturing and commercialization of the medicine, had spent CNY26.56 million (USD4.15 million) to develop the drug as of the end of last year. The firm submitted an investigational new drug application to the US Food and Drug Administration last year, which allows it to start human clinical trials.

Editor: Kim Taylor