Clinical-stage pharmaceutical company Altesa BioSciences Inc announced on Wednesday that it has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Investigational New Drug (IND) application for vapendavir for the treatment of rhinovirus infections in people living with Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

This enables the company to commence clinical trials in the United States for this patient population.

Vapendavir is taken orally in pill form and is a broad-spectrum antiviral medicine that prevents the virus from entering human cells and replicating. According to Altesa, it demonstrates potent activity across 97% of rhinoviruses and other respiratory enteroviruses.

Altesa has exclusive global rights to develop, manufacture and commercialise vapendavir.