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Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals said on Monday they began a
clinical trial of their rheumatoid arthritis drug Kevzara as a
coronavirus treatment, while in Spain a separate trial is
studying if a combination of two drugs can slow down the spread
of coronavirus among people.
Enrolments for the mid-to-late stage trial of Kevzara, an
immune-system modifying drug known as a monoclonal antibody,
will begin immediately and test up to 400 patients, Sanofi and
Regeneron said in a joint statement.
Regeneron in February announced a partnership with the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services to develop a treatment
for the new coronavirus, called SARS-CoV2, and said it would
focus on monoclonal antibodies.
The virus that emerged in central China in December has now
infected more than 179,000 people worldwide, according to the
Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking these figures.
Doctors have seen that many of those who become critically ill
from SARS-CoV2 are experiencing a so-called cytokine storm,
which happens when the immune system overreacts and attacks the
body’s organs. Some researchers think drugs that can suppress
the immune system, including monoclonal antibodies, might be
useful for limiting this autoimmune response.
Meanwhile, Barcelona-based researchers said on Monday they would
administer a drug used to treat HIV - containing darunavir and
cobicistat - to a coronavirus-infected person.
The patient's close contacts would be administered
hydroxychloroquine, a drug for malaria and rheumatoid conditions
because laboratory experiments suggest it prevents this strain
of coronavirus from reproducing.
"The goal of our study is to separate the transmission chains,"
Oriol Mitja, researcher at Germans Trias i Pujol Research
Institute, told a news briefing.
Patients with coronavirus can infect between 5% and 15% of the
people they come into contact with during the 14 days after
starting to show symptoms, he said.
The trial's goal is to reduce that number below 14 days and also
to reduce the percentage of contacts infected and researchers
plan to analyze the results in 21 days.
Around 200 patients with coronavirus and 3,000 of their close
contacts will take part in the trial, which has private and
public funding.
Mitja - who plans to talk with World Health Organization
officials this week - said there were two other similar projects
in Australia and the United States, but that his is in the lead.
Also on Monday, Madrid's La Paz-Carlos III hospital announced a
trial to administer another antiviral drug, Remdesivir, to
voluntary patients with serious and milder cases of coronavirus,
Madrid's regional government said in a statement.
About 1,000 patients will take part in the European-wide trial,
it said.
(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru and Joan Faus in
Barcelona; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Alexander Smith)
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