BetterLife Announces VirTrial as Clinical Trial Patient Monitoring Partner
VANCOUVER, Oct. 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BetterLife Pharma Inc. (“BetterLife” or the “Company”) (CSE: BETR / OTCQB: BETRF / FRA: NPAT) an emerging biotech company, is pleased to announce that it will be teaming up with VirTrial, LLC (“VirTrial”) to conduct patient monitoring for their imminent COVID 19 clinical trials in Australia to test the efficacy of AP-003, a proprietary interferon alpha 2b formulation.
VirTrial is a telehealth platform provider that is changing the way pharmaceutical companies conduct clinical trials and enabling research sites to improve patient recruitment and retention. VirTrial’s platform enables BetterLife to empower their selected clinical research sites to perform virtual visits – a combination of secure video, audio, chat and messaging, which can be used on any device. Incorporating virtual visits facilitates BetterLife to evaluate, qualify and routinely monitor both patients and research sites for studies without physical travel.
Unlike other clinical trial vendors that began as technology companies, VirTrial has a stable team of clinical research veterans and experienced tech entrepreneurs teaming together to lead the company towards providing the human population with remote access to clinical research sites.
Dr. Ahmad Doroudian, CEO of BetterLife said, “Considering the constant changing restrictions on travel due to COVID-19, we felt that this was the best option for us to proceed without delay with our patient trials. We feel that partnering with an innovative company like VirTrial will assist us in virtually monitoring patients who may or may not be able to travel to our clinical sites owing to self-isolation at home.”
Mark Hanley, CEO of VirTrial commented, “The sites are excited about the opportunity to be part of the solution for a true and present need and appreciate the benefit of being able to conduct the study via a fully remote DCT to eliminate any risk to employees.”
Dr. Ahmad Doroudian added, ‘’It is exciting to know that we are making use of technology that allows us to safely deliver and monitor the efficacy of AP-003 for patients in the comfort of their homes. Patients will have an easier time committing to the rigors of a clinical trial knowing that they can participate from their home.”
BetterLife would also like to announce that it has signed a share purchase agreement to assign the issued and outstanding shares of its subsidiary, Pivot Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corp., to an unrelated third party. The assignment includes the Company’s lease of the manufacturing facility in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec, Canada and its in-process Health Canada license application.
About BetterLife Pharma Inc.:
BetterLife Pharma Inc. is an emerging biotechnology company engaged in the development and commercialization of therapeutic pharmaceuticals as well as drug delivery platform technologies. BetterLife is refining and developing drug candidates from a broad set of complementary interferon-based technologies which have the potential to engage the immune system to fight virus infections, such as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and human papillomavirus (HPV), and/or to directly inhibit tumours to treat specific types of cancer.
For further information please visit www.blifetherapeutics.com.
About VirTrial, LLC:
VirTrial is a bioscience technology company providing a stable, long-standing telemedicine platform to transform the clinical trial industry. The VirTrial platform combines secure video, audio, chat and messaging allowing pharmaceutical companies and CROs to create patient centric Decentralized Clinical Trials (DCTs) by replacing some study visits with virtual visits. The vision is for 25-50% of visits to be conducted virtually creating a hybrid model. The VirTrial platform is supported on any device (Android, Apple, tablet, phone, computer) and can be used by any site worldwide. They are hosted in a secure cloud-based environment and are HIPAA and GDPR compliant.
To learn more about VirTrial, visit https://www.virtrial.com.
Cautionary Note
The Company is not making any express or implied claims that AP-003 or any other product has the ability to eliminate, cure or contain the COVID-19 (or SARS-2 Coronavirus) at this time.
Contact
Ahmad Doroudian, Chief Executive Officer
Email: Ahmad.Doroudian@blifepharma.com
Phone: 604-221-0595
Dost Mustaq, BDA International Investor Relations Contact
Email: ir@blifepharma.com
Phone: 646-679-4321
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Except for historical information, the matters set forth above may be forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current beliefs of management, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. Actual results could differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors. Reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements, as they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to differ materially from the anticipated future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forward in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: our ability to obtain, on satisfactory terms or at all, the capital required for research, product development, operations and marketing; general economic, business and market conditions; our ability to successfully and timely complete clinical studies; product development delays and other uncertainties related to new product development; our ability to attract and retain business partners and key personnel; the risk of our inability to profitably commercialize our proposed products; the risk that our proposed clinical trials will not be launched in a timely manner (or at all) or if launched yield positive results or that we will not obtain regulatory market approvals for our products; the extent of any future losses; the risk of our inability to establish or manage manufacturing, development or marketing collaborations; the risk of delay of, or failure to obtain, necessary regulatory approvals and, ultimately, product launches; dependence on third parties for successful commercialization of our products; inability to obtain product and raw materials in sufficient quantity or at standards acceptable to health regulatory authorities to commence and complete clinical trials or to meet commercial demand; our ability to obtain patent protection and protect our intellectual property rights; commercialization limitations imposed by intellectual property rights owned or controlled by third parties; uncertainty related to intellectual property liability rights and liability claims asserted against us; the impact of competitive products and pricing; and future levels of government funding; additional risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control.
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