SARS-CoV-2 is the official name that the Coronavirus Study Group has given the present coronavirus epidemic. Covid-19 is the name given by the World Health Organization to the same virus.
The news about the spread of Covid-19, formerly known as the 2019-novel coronavirus, can be depressing. Especially with more than 76 thousand cases and 2,247 deaths and counting.
Hopefully, this page will shine a light of hope to many.
Update 03/11/2020
A new survey by Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN) reveals 35 active drug development programs in North America, Europe, and China. Those 35 include treatments that have received the greatest public attention in recent days, being developed by companies that range from pharma giants like GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi, to small and large biotechs such as Moderna and Gilead Sciences. Gilead has begun clinical trials in China after peer-reviewed journals showed its antiviral candidate, remdesivir, having positive results in a case involving an American patient and Chinese in vitro tests.
The mysterious coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese city Wuhan, now termed as Covid-19, and its fast spread to many other countries, endangers thousands of lives. The pandemic has catalysed the development of novel coronavirus vaccines across the biotech industry, both by pharmaceutical companies and research organisations such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), US.
The first Covid-19 vaccine in China is expected to be ready for clinical trials by the end of April, according to Xu Nanping, China’s vice-minister of science and technology. Inovio Pharmaceuticals plans to begin clinical trials on a coronavirus vaccine in April this year.
Health officials from WHO have noted that Gilead’s remdesivir has demonstrated efficacy in treating the coronavirus infection. More at the headline link.
In the months since the novel coronavirus rose from a regional crisis to a global threat, drug makers large and small have scrambled to advance their best ideas for thwarting a pandemic.
Some are repurposing old antivirals. Some are mobilizing tried-and-true technologies, and others are pressing forward with futuristic approaches to human medicine.
Here’s a guide to some of the most talked-about efforts to treat or prevent coronavirus infection, with details on the science, history, and timeline for each endeavor. More at headline link.
A US biotech firm has ramped up production of an experimental drug that has become a focal point for hopes of an effective treatment for coronavirus.
The first clinical trial of the antiviral medicine remdesivir in Covid-19 patients is due to report its findings next month according to Gilead Sciences, which said it had accelerated manufacturing of the drug to increase its supplies “as rapidly as possible”.
A mix of legacy drugmakers and small startups have stepped forward with plans to develop vaccines or treatments that target the infection caused by the novel coronavirus.
Asthma drug seems effective for COVID-19 pneumonia
Japanese doctors say an asthma drug appears to be effective in reducing symptoms of coronavirus patients who developed pneumonia.
A medical team at Ashigarakami hospital in Kanagawa Prefecture treated patients who became ill aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship. They have announced the results of their study on the Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases’ website.
Update 3/4/2020
BEIJING/ZURICH (Reuters) – China has approved the use of Swiss drugmaker Roche’s (ROG.S) anti-inflammation drug Actemra for patients who develop severe complications from the coronavirus as it urgently hunts for new ways to combat the deadly infection that is spreading worldwide.
BEIJING/ZURICH (Reuters) – China has approved the use of Swiss drugmaker Roche’s (ROG.S) anti-inflammation drug Actemra for patients who develop severe complications from the coronavirus as it urgently hunts for new ways to combat the deadly infection that is spreading worldwide.
Medical explanation: The body uses inflammation to fight infections. It can also happen that the body overreacts to an infection and produces more inflammation than needed. That is a cytokine storm. In cytokine storms, even the normal tissue of the body gets destroyed and it makes the disease worse.
Interleukin-6, IL-6 is one of the mediators of inflammation. Actemra whose generic name is tocilizumab acts on IL-6 to prevent the cytokine storm.
Japan’s Takeda Pharma says it is developing COVID-19 drug
TOKYO: Takeda Pharmaceutical Co said on Wednesday (Mar 4) it was developing a drug to treat COVID-19, the flu-like illness that has struck more than 90,000 people worldwide and killed over 3,000.
The Japanese drug maker is working on a plasma-derived therapy to treat high-risk individuals infected with the coronavirus and will share its plans with members of the US Congress on Wednesday, it said in a statement.
Update 2/28/2020
YOKOHAMA – The Kanagawa Prefectural Institute of Public Health and the government-affiliated research institute Riken said Thursday that they have developed a technology that can detect the COVID-19 coronavirus in only 10 to 30 minutes.
The newly developed technology is at least on par with PCR in terms of accuracy, according to the prefectural institute and Riken.
If Riken is successful, it can be game-changer in the fight against Covid-19
AbCellera’s rapid, high-throughput therapeutic antibody discovery technology will be used to discover coronavirus-neutralizing antibodies that could ultimately be deployed to stop transmission of the 2019-nCoV outbreak.AbCellera’s platform has already been pressure-tested twice in simulated responses to pandemic outbreaks. In late 2018, AbCellera tested the platform against Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), demonstrating that the platform could effectively isolate hundreds of coronavirus-neutralizing antibodies from camelids in less than 96 hours.
HHS, Regeneron Collaborate to Develop 2019-nCoV Treatment – HHS
BARDA and Regeneron now will leverage their partnership agreement to develop multiple monoclonal antibodies that, individually or in combination, could be used to treat this emerging coronavirus, also known as 2019-nCoV.
These monoclonal antibodies are produced by a single clone of cells or a cell line with identical antibody molecules. The antibodies bind to certain proteins of a virus, reducing the ability of the virus to infect human cells. Medicines developed for 2019-nCoV through the expanded BARDA-Regeneron partnership will leverage Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody discovery platform called VelocImmune, part of the company’s VelociSuite technology.
Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson is working to develop a vaccine for the emergent coronavirus identified last month in Wuhan, China, launching initial efforts to construct from the virus’ genetic sequence a candidate that could be tested in humans.
Vir is working to rapidly determine whether its previously identified anti-coronavirus monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) bind and neutralize 2019-nCoV, also referred to as “Wuhan coronavirus”.
“We have a library of multiple fully-human mAbs that bind and neutralize coronaviruses such as SARS and MERS,” said Herbert “Skip” Virgin, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Vir. “These mAbs were discovered using our antibody platform that identifies mAbs from survivors of an infection. Some of these mAbs are able to neutralize zoonotic coronaviruses, and we believe may have the potential to treat and prevent Wuhan coronavirus. We are also exploring the isolation of new mAbs specific for this virus.”
In addition to Vir’s mAb efforts, its scientists are planning to apply whole genome CRISPR-based screening capabilities (Vir’s innate immunity platform) to identify the host receptor that allows Wuhan coronavirus infection.
- In just over three weeks, biotech Moderna designed and manufactured the first batch of an experimental coronavirus vaccine that it plans to soon send to the National Institutes of Health for use in initial clinical testing.
- The vaccine, which relies on Moderna’s messenger RNA technology, is currently undergoing analytical testing prior to its release to the NIH, the company said Monday.
AbbVie said it was donating more than one million dollars’ worth of Aluvia, a combination of lopinavir and ritonavir as an ad-hoc treatment for pneumonia that is associated with the outbreak. The Chinese government suggested last week that taking two lopinavir/ritonavir pills and inhaling a dose of nebulized alpha-interferon twice a day could benefit these patients, Reuters reported.
Two trials were expedited on the recommendation of the WHO’s experts. Patients in one are being given Kaletra, taken by people with HIV. The drug is a combination of two antiretrovirals, lopinavir and ritonavir. Scientists are awaiting the results from the first 200 people to be treated with it.
The other drug in trials is remdesivir, made by Gilead. It was tested during the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2018 but it was not sufficiently effective against that virus.
A clinical trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the antiviral drug remdesivir in adults diagnosed with coronavirus started at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, the National Institutes of Health said.
Last month, Hangzhou-based Ascletis Pharma applied to the Chinese authorities to test two HIV protease inhibitors (ritonavir and ASC09) in clinical trials to treat COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus (Table 1). And Suzhou-based BrightGene Bio-Medical Technology announced in early February that it would begin to manufacture Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir (GS-5734), a broad-spectrum investigational antiviral, as a treatment for coronavirus infection.
From the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, medical practitioners have followed China’s guidelines set up in January and treated hospitalized patients with α-interferon combined with the repurposed drug Kaletra, an approved cocktail of the HIV protease inhibitors ritonavir and lopinavir.
- Officials expect the drug to be available within 90 days after it has been tested
- Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis called it an ‘exciting breakthrough’
- Researchers had been working on a vaccine against a virus found in poultry
- They now say if they can ‘adjust the system’ from the poultry coronavirus to the human one they will have ‘in a few weeks a vaccine to prevent coronavirus’
Update 6 am 2/26/2020
Drugmaker Moderna Inc. has shipped the first batch of its rapidly developed coronavirus vaccine to U.S. government researchers, who will launch the first human tests of whether the experimental shot could help suppress the epidemic originating in China.
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Researchers and drug companies are scrambling to develop vaccines and treatments to fight the new coronavirus that emerged in central China in December and has spread to more than two dozen countries, killing more than 2,000 people.
More at the link.
HHS partners with drug makers on COVID-19 vaccine, drugs – CIDRAP
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is partnering with Sanofi Pasteur and Johnson & Johnson to develop vaccines and therapeutics to use against COVID-19, according to press releases from the drug makers and HHS today.
A Chinese biotech has taken up vaccine maker GSK’s offer to share its vaccine-boosting platform as it works to develop a product that can stop infection from the novel coronavirus, the companies announced Monday.
The company, Clover Biopharmaceuticals, started working on its vaccine last month, as the outbreak of the virus in China grew. Under the partnership, GSK will provide Clover with its proprietary adjuvants — compounds that enhance the effectiveness of vaccines.
The first Covid-19 vaccine in China is expected to be ready for clinical trials by the end of April, according to Xu Nanping, China’s vice-minister of science and technology. Health officials from WHO have noted that Gilead’s remdesivir has demonstrated efficacy in treating the coronavirus infection.
Favilavir, the first approved coronavirus drug in China. The National Medical Products Administration of China has approved the use of Favilavir, an anti-viral drug, as a treatment for coronavirus. The drug has reportedly shown efficacy in treating the disease with minimal side effects in a clinical trial involving 70 patients. The clinical trial is being conducted in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.
Drugmaker Moderna has shipped its first batch of a possible coronavirus vaccine for humans to government researchers for testing.
Shares of the biotech company soared early Tuesday, a day after the company said it sent vials to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for early-stage testing in the United States.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The first clinical trial in the U.S. of a possible coronavirus treatment is underway in Nebraska and is eventually expected to include 400 patients at 50 locations around the world, officials said Tuesday.
Half of the patients in the international study will receive the antiviral medicine remdesivir while the other half will receive a placebo. Several other studies, including one looking at the same drug, are already underway internationally.
Highlights of the latest COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment scheme – Shine.cn
This not only for health workers but for all.
iMask? Companies Race To Build Next-Gen Facewear To Block Germs – Zerohedge
Now Ao Air’s Atmos Faceware is the next generation of maks to block germs up to 50 times better than traditional masks currently on the market, reported AUT BioDesign Lab.
The company commissioned its own study (note: the research isn’t published nor peer-reviewed) describes how Atmos Faceware is a much better solution against particulate matter than standard air filter mask certified by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Ao Air claims Atmos Faceware is unlike traditional face masks because it doesn’t require an airtight seal to be effective.
Antibody testing, medicine advance: Academia Sinica – Taipei Times
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Academia Sinica yesterday said that its researchers have developed an antibody testing method for COVID-19 and have made progress synthesizing remdesivir, a medicine that many believe could cure the infection.
China has more than 80 running or pending clinical trials on potential treatments for COVID-19, the illness caused by a coronavirus that has thus far killed nearly 1,400 people and infected more than 48,000 across China.
New pharmaceutical drugs are listed beside thousand-year-old traditional therapies in a public registry of China’s clinical trials, which is growing every day. There is no known cure, and doctors are eager to help those with the disease — but scientists caution that only carefully conducted trials will determine which measures work.
China says COVID-19 vaccine trials to start around late April – CNA
China could start clinical trials for a potential vaccine for the novel coronavirus around late April, an official said on Friday (Feb 21).
“Several research teams were trying different techniques to develop a potential vaccine, and the earliest vaccine is expected to be submitted for clinical trials around late April,” Xu Nanping, vice science and technology minister, told a press briefing.
China’s vaccine development and research is currently “basically in step with other countries”, he added.
As scientists rush to develop treatment and vaccines for the Wuhan coronavirus, a team of Taiwanese scientists has developed the country’s first self-produced antigen for the virus in 10 days.
Academia Sinica said that with the new antigen in hand, it can begin testing for antibodies and can also aid in the development of a vaccine and drugs to treat the disease.
Traditional Chinese Medicine as Treatment for Covid-19
Taiwan’s National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) said Thursday (Feb. 20) that researchers have successfully recreated small compounds of remdesivir and the country will likely be able to produce the American antiviral drug in the next few weeks.
NHRI Vice President Huey-Kang Sytwu (司徒惠康) pointed out that researchers have managed to develop milligrams of remdesivir, a drug which has shown promising results in Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) patients. He expects that the trial level can be upgraded within the next two weeks, potentially enabling Taiwan to produce its own remdesivir soon.
“It is only one case,” Diaz said. “It’s the first person in the world who got this medication for novel coronavirus, but it seems to have worked.”
Health Minister Gan Kim Yong and National Development Minister Lawrence Wong, who co-chair the Covid-19 response task force, have been tireless in addressing queries from the media, openly and transparently, with briefings held almost daily in recent weeks.
World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he had spoken on Monday (Feb 17) to Singapore Health Minister Gan Kim Yong.
“We are very impressed with the efforts they are making to find every case, follow up with contacts and stop transmission,” said Dr Tedros.
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Don’t Get Sick!
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