Yale University’s School of Medicine and AI Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company, launched a multi-institutional clinical trial to test the safety and efficacy of using apilimod to reduce virus levels in infected individuals. While Yale conducted the study, AI Therapeutics, founded by a Yale alumnus, owned the intellectual property rights to the drug. The study was expected to enroll 142 newly diagnosed patients. Murat Gunel, a Yale professor and an advisor at AI Therapeutics, stated that LAM-002A (apilimod) held promise as a powerful therapy for COVID-19 patients to prevent disease progression, hopefully avoiding the need for hospitalization. Gunel and other researchers involved in the study were hopeful that apilimod would be able to prevent the development of COVID-19 after exposure, particularly among high-risk populations, such as the elderly community.