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Moleculin Biotech announced that it has received approval from the UK MHRA to proceed with a first-in-human Phase 1a study to evaluate the safety and pharmacokinetics of WP1122 in healthy volunteers for the treatment of COVID-19, or MB-301. The approval follows Moleculin's having submitted a protocol amendment allowing for a higher ratio of diluting excipients to drug substance to facilitate a faster and simpler mixing procedure before drug administration. WP1122, the Company's lead metabolism/glycosylation inhibitor, is a prodrug of a well-known glucose decoy called 2-deoxy-D-glucose, or 2-DG, currently being developed for inhibition of viral replication and disease manifestations in humans infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19. The mechanism of action of 2-DG includes both the inhibition of glycolysis and the disruption of glycosylation, two processes that are important to both viral activity and tumor development. WP1122 was developed as a 2-DG prodrug to provide a more favorable pharmacological profile, and was found to have greater potency than 2-DG alone in preclinical models where tumor cells require higher glycolytic activity than normal cells. WP1122 has also been shown to have a more potent antiviral effect than 2-DG against SARS-CoV-2 in MRC-5 cells in culture.

Moleculin Biotech has received allowance from the Polish Department of Registration of Medicinal Products - URPL -, as well as the requisite Ethics Committee approval, to proceed with its Phase 1/2 clinical trial in Poland of Annamycin in combination with Cytarabine ) in the treatment of subjects with acute myeloid leukemia - AML - who are refractory to or relapsed after induction therapy. The Phase 1/2 L-ANN /ARA-C combination trial, an open label trial, builds on the safety and dosage data from the two successfully concluded single agent Annamycin AML Phase 1 trials in the U.S. and Europe and the preclinical data discussed below. The study is expected to commence patient enrollment in the first half of 2022. Annamycin is the company's next-generation anthracycline that has been shown in animal models to accumulate in the lungs at up to 30-fold the level of doxorubicin, as well as demonstrating the ability to avoid the multidrug resistance mechanisms that typically limit the efficacy of doxorubicin and other currently prescribed anthracyclines.

American Resources announced that it has entered into a multi-year lease of it Deane Mining complex to a local, third-party operator named Bluegrass Resources. The Company's Deane Mining complex, located in Letcher County, Kentucky, contains a 800 ton per hour carbon processing facility, logistics infrastructure including batch weight unit train loadout on CSX rail, and access to abundant onsite and nearby mining capabilities. American Resources acquired the Deane Mining complex in December of 2015 from Rhino Resources Partners LP and operated it until 2019. Under the terms of the lease to the third party, American Resources will receive an upfront cash payment of $100,000 a month for the first two months and then $20,000 monthly minimum until in production. Once in production American Resources will receive the higher of $5.00 per ton or 5% of gross sales price generated from the Deane Mining complex, among other terms of the transaction. The term of the lease is for a five-year period with renewable options thereafter.

American Resources Corporation announced that it has secured the exclusive worldwide rights for a new provisional patent filed by the Company's technology and research partner, Purdue University, for the isolation and purification of battery-grade materials using multi-mode chromatography for all feedstocks. The provisional patent was filed on March 25th, 2022 by the Purdue Research Foundation for the purpose of establishing and protecting the Company's "versatile multi-dimension and multi-mode chromatography methods for producing high-purity lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese salts with high yields from all feedstocks including end-of-life batteries."

American Resources Corporation announced that it has joined the global Rare Earth Industry Association, an international non-profit organization representing the global rare earth element industry.