Does Brilacidin work?
Not properly: animal or lab studies, or small uncontrolled human reports. The company reports trials only in press releases, and a 120-patient COVID trial showed no gain over a dummy treatment.
The two citable studies are laboratory experiments showing brilacidin inhibits SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses in cell culture. The company has run phase 2 trials in skin infection and COVID-19, but those results exist only as press releases and conference material, not peer-reviewed publications, so the antiviral and antibacterial claims rest on in vitro data (grade C). 12
No peer-reviewed human trial of brilacidin has been published. The company has made three claims in press releases and regulatory filings. First, a phase 2b trial in acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections found one dose by vein worked about as well as seven days of daptomycin. Second, a phase 2 proof-of-concept trial in ulcerative proctitis was positive. Third, a randomized, placebo-controlled phase 2 trial in 120 hospitalised COVID-19 patients reported topline results in November 2021. Brilacidin did not differ from placebo on the main outcome, time to sustained recovery through day 29. None of these datasets has appeared in a journal where others can check the design and results. 123
Evidence checklist
- Randomised controlled trial No peer-reviewed human trial published
- Human study over 100 people No published human data
- More than one research group Lab studies only; company press releases
- Clinical outcomes, not surrogate markers Human outcomes not published
- Human safety data beyond case reports Company says well tolerated; no data
More on Brilacidin
Citations
- Bakovic 2021, Viruses: brilacidin demonstrates inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 in cell culture doi.org
- Hu 2022, J Med Virol: brilacidin shows broad-spectrum antiviral activity against human coronaviruses OC43, 229E and NL63 doi.org
- Innovation Pharmaceuticals 2021 press release: topline results from the phase 2 trial of brilacidin for COVID-19 markets.financialcontent.com
Reference information only, not medical advice. Drawn from the Brilacidin article, fact-checked against the cited sources. No dosing anywhere on this site.