Financed under the European Union's Infectious Disease Finance Facility, the venture loan will be used to support the development of Immunic's IMU-838 lead therapeutic candidate for patients with moderate COVID-19. In addition, the financing will also support the potential expansion of its CALVID-1 trial into a confirmatory phase III trial, as well as commercial-scale manufacturing for IMU-838, according to the company.

Immunic will receive the EIB loan in three tranches after completing predefined milestones for IMU-838, a selective oral dihydroorotate dehydrogenase inhibitor. An orally available small molecule, IMU-838 has demonstrated preclinical activity against SARS-CoV-2 in multiple assays and is currently undergoing a phase II clinical trial in hospitalized COVID-19 patients with moderate disease activity, the firm said.

It's also being evaluated in other phase II trials as a potential treatment for chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and ulcerative colitis, Immunic said.