Israel’s Bonus BioGroup reports a survival rate of 94 percent (47 of 50) of the severe Covid-19 patients treated with its drug product MesenCure in a Phase II, multicenter clinical trial.

Study results, soon to be published, show MesenCure treatment reduced study participants’ hospitalization period by about half compared to a control group. All these patients had life-threatening pneumonia and respiratory distress caused by Covid-19.

The data shows that MesenCure treatment reduced mortality by about 70% compared with the control group. Only two of the first 30 severe Covid-19 patients treated with MesenCure died due to Covid-19 or its complications, while 14 of 60 similar patients in the control group died.

MesenCure treatment shortened the hospitalization period of severe Covid-19 patients by eight days on average, a reduction of 45% relative to the control group.

The experimental group included women and men aged 41.4 to 77.4. About 77% of the severe Covid-19 patients treated in three hospitals with MesenCure had one or more risk factors for poor prognosis: hypertension, hyperlipidemia, obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Most were treated during the fourth Covid-19 wave in Israel, dominated by the Delta strain.

The control group received the current standard of care — anti-inflammatory drugs in combination with steroids. This regimen, according to Bonus BioGroup, reduces mortality in hospitalized Covid-19 patients only slightly, from 25.8% to 21.8%, indicating that MesenCure is four times more effective.

“We are proud of our success in leading the world to be a safer place by developing a medication for severe Covid-19 patients, thereby dramatically reducing the threat to their lives,” said Dr. Shai Meretzki, CEO of Bonus BioGroup.

“In less than two years from the epidemic outbreak, we are the first in the world to report an effective and significant treatment for severely ill patients.”

According to a statement from Bonus BioGroup, an independent expert committee confirmed the findings of the Phase II clinical trial of MesenCure and recommended continuing toward Phase III. Meretzki told the Jerusalem Post that the company will apply for emergency use approval from European and US regulatory agencies.