Steroid drug hailed as 'breakthrough' for seriously ill COVID-19 patients I was prescribed some eye drops for allergies and I was looking at the bottle and dexamethasone is one of the main ingredients. I was like, I know I have seen that drug name somewhere.
Couple of things: Lancet retracted the story because of the shoddy data analysis employed. In the end, the study in fact proved Chloroquine was not effective as a treatment. This is a totally different study to see if it has any effect in preventing people from developing Covid-19.
I am not complaining, just asking the question. Isn't this what the US accused China of doing with masks and other drug supplies??? US buys up world stock of key Covid-19 drug remdesivir
Personal connection to story of Covid-19 treatment success. The husband of one of my wife's tennis friend (and hard core anti-media, anti-virus,anti-masker, etc...) developed a fever on Father's Day. Was confirmed Covid-19 48 hours later. After a 5th day of a fever above 103, he started struggling to breath. They went to the ER and were admitted to the special Covid-19 only hospital in town. The doctors immediately started him on Remdesivir, Actemra (in Phase-3 Trials for use on Covid-19 patients) and steroids (not sure which ones). After 4 days in the hospital he showed rapid improvement, fever long gone, blood ox back to near normal levels and on day 5 was sent home after testing negative for the virus and finish recovering his strength on his own. His doctors said that if they can catch cases before, or very early in the respiratory distress phase that Remdesivir, Actemra and steroids are their standard approach and are having good success with that treatment. On another note, during the Dr. Osterholm (of CIDRAP - Center for Disease Research and Policy at U of Minnesota) podcast this week he was mentioning a similar treatment course as a general practice and noted that even in advanced cases of respiratory distress, that current treatment plans and improvements in care have seen the mortality rates of patients on ventilators drop from 80% early on to under 20% now. We still have no silver bullet, but the reduction in deaths is certainly in part due to treatment advances. We are making progress if we can just keep our hospitals from being overwhelmed.
With everyone focusing on a vaccine, I think some of the development work on anti-virals has been missed. This is a drug that would be delivered in pill form that is currently in Phase 2a Randomized, Double Blind Placebo Controlled Study for Safety. First data is due out on August 1. Merck must at least like its chances because on May 26th they bought the rights to the medication from Ridgeback Bio Therapeutics LP. Pre-Clinical work at Emory and UNC Chappel Hill showed that the medication induced (do not sue me if I get this wrong) rapid mutations in all coronaviruses that eventually lead to replication errors such that the virus can no longer copy itself and the body overwhelms it. Merck Unveils Virus Vaccine Candidates While Warning on Timeline
Hope this Phase2a test is a success. This sounds like a winner and would take a lot (not all) of the fear of this away.
Interesting that the intention of making this treatment available for both hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients if it goes well. Additionally, they are looking at the ability of the cocktail to both treat and prevent COVID-19. Regeneron Announces Start of REGN-COV2 Phase 3 COVID-19 Prevention Trial in Collaboration with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) | Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.
And the saga continues..... WHO discontinues hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir treatment arms for COVID-19
Sinovac the latest company to push its vaccine candidate into Phase 3 trials. Healthcare workers in Brazil appear to be the primary guinea pigs...uh, test subjects for the Chinese vaccine. Sinovac COVID-19 Vaccine Collaboration with Butantan Receives Approval from Brazilian Regulator for Phase III Trial
The Pro Herd Immunity crowd took a hit yesterday... COVID-19 herd immunity might not be possible - study 16 hrs ago A new Spanish study suggests herd immunity may never be a viable way to control the COVID-19 pandemic. The study, which was published in medical journal The Lancet, tested more than 60,000 people and estimated that only 5 percent of the Spanish population has developed antibodies for the coronavirus. The study also showed that coastal areas in Spain had an even lower prevalence of antibodies at just 3 percent. It also found that 14 percent of people who had tested positive for the antibodies on the first test, no longer had the antibodies in subsequent tests weeks later. This could mean the antibodies only provide a very short period of immunity. COVID-19 herd immunity might not be possible - study
Funny timing on this story, I was just having a conversation about inhalable treatments recently. She was telling me why this would never get to trials, and yet, here it is. Gilead launches early-stage study of inhaled remdesivir (NASDAQ:GILD) | Seeking Alpha
