Salarius Pharmaceuticals (SLRX) said Monday its unit Decoy Therapeutics and the Texas Biomedical Research Institute are partnering to run in vitro testing of Decoy's influenza inhibitors, including those targeting H5N1 avian flu.

Financial terms weren't provided.

Salarius said the partnership follows its recent underwritten public offering that raised $8 million and consumated a previously announced merger with Decoy Therapeutics, and is expected to support plans to advance Decoy's antiviral pipeline.

Decoy expects to move its lead pan-coronavirus program toward an Investigational New Drug Application filing with the US Food and Drug Administration in the next year, Salarius said.

Shares of the company were down 0.5% in recent early Monday trading.