Lupa Bio is developing a new drug based on a sugar found in human milk to treat inflammatory diseases. Because of its origins in human milk it has unprecedented safety, backed by human and animal data, by virtue of a mechanism that doesn’t rely on suppressing the immune system which is what causes many of the side effects seen with today’s drugs. Because the uncontrolled inflammatory response is responsible for the severe symptoms and deaths associated with COVID-19 infection, Lupa Bio is evaluating the utility of its drug to reduce severity of symptoms of the infection in milder and moderate cases as well as in the severe Cytokine Storm Syndromes cases. Lupa Bio has completed a positive Pre-IND meeting with the FDA and is working to submit an IND this year to enable rapidly advancing into clinical studies.