Parents wait with their children to enter their elementary school as it reopens following the ease of restrictions preventing the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Sderot, Israel, May 3, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Amir Cohen / File.

Enlivex Therapeutics Ltd on Thursday reported positive results in a clinical trial of the immunotherapy firm’s Allocetra treatment in COVID-19 patients in severe or critical condition.

Shares of Enlivex were up 83 percent in Tel Aviv after resuming trade. They were halted in Tel Aviv and on Nasdaq pending the announcement.

Israel-based Enlivex said the trial, which was conducted along with Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, included five patients — three in severe condition and two in critical condition.

All five had complete recoveries after an average of no more than 8.5 days following administration of Allocetra, while there were no reported severe adverse events.

It said that if approved, Allocetra “could potentially cover the gap that currently exists in treating severe or critical COVID-19 patients.”

Enlivex said that based on the positive results of the five COVID-19 patients, along with good results of Allocetra in 10 sepsis patients in a previous study, it will shift recruitment of additional patients into a larger Phase II clinical trial of COVID-19 patients in severe or critical condition as soon as possible and subject to regulatory approval.

Any COVID-19 trials would run independently of Enlivex’s planned Phase IIb clinical trial of Allocetra for the treatment of organ failures associated with sepsis expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2020.