Covid-19: Treatments, Cures, and Vaccines

Was there a controlled study in there somewhere? Not some anecdotal review of medical records that included cherry picking data? If there is, I apologize because I sure did not see one. Still, interesting none the less, thanks.

 

Couple of interesting charts. IF correct then that's too much of a coincidence for me.

 

Johnson and Johnson Phase 3 trial put on HOLD in the United States after a patient falls ill. This is unfortunate since this was most likley the best candidate for widespread availability given the size of Johnson and Johnson's manufacturing reach and partnerships. Also, this vaccine would not have to be transported and stored and excessively cold temperatures making transport and longer term storage much more viable.

COVID-19 tracker: J&J pauses vaccine trial after patient falls ill; Pfizer wins OK to enroll younger patients in shot study

 

Long time ulcer drug stopped the corona virus from replicating within 4 days in hamsters. It basically binds the double helix and prevents it from unwinding into separate strands that are then passed to the healthy cell as part of the viral replication process.

Ulcer drug found to be potent weapon against virus

 

I would be having an awful lot of fun if I was a hamster and didn’t get the placebo

 

Less than 24 hours after J&J halted its Phase 3 US vaccine trial, Eli Lilly has halted its Phase 3 Trial of its Monoclonal Anti-Body Cocktail when the independent safety board raise an undisclosed concern.

U.S. pauses Eli Lilly's trial of a coronavirus antibody treatment over safety concerns

 

I recall reading about studies on stomach acid drug being tested back in the spring. this isn't it but similar

Omeprazole As An Additive For Coronavirus Therapy
The paper goes on to look at another approved drug that I haven’t seen getting as much attention: omeprazole, the well-known proton pump inhibitor for acid reflux. It has been reported as having some antiviral activity in the past, possibly by increasing the pH in lysosomal compartments. In their assays, it did interfere with viral infection, but at levels too high for realistic human dosing. But here’s the interesting part: they found that simultaneous treatment with omeprazole (at human therapeutic concentrations) increased the activity of apronitin by 2.7 fold and increased the activity of remdesivir by 10-fold. That seems like a very useful observation! As far as I can see, the paper did not check for an interaction of omeprazole and camostat/nafamostat, which would be interesting to know as well. The same group had noted in 2019 that the drug increased the activity of acyclovir against the herpes virus.

found this article about RBC inhibiting SARS from 2007. Surprised it ahs taken them this long to advance testing on this drug

Bismuth Complexes Inhibit the SARS Coronavirus

 

Covid: Remdesivir 'has little or no effect' on survival, says WHO

 

saw that..what now brown cow?

 

A WHO study of nearly 3000 randomized patients found that 4 popular treatments for Covid have “little or no effect” on death. They did find that Remdesivir May keep people from getting sicker if administered early.

The results indicated that the remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir and interferon drug treatment regimens “appeared to have little or no effect on 28-day mortality or the in-hospital course of COVID-19 among hospitalized patients.”

Remdesivir has ‘little or no effect’ in reducing coronavirus deaths, WHO says

 

Well the TA spent a billion buying up as much as they could get. What a waste. Should have waited for the results to come back.

Gilead is the winner here.

 

Yeah that’s not good, not totally shocking as I’ve been told every patient here gets prescribed the drug now, yet patients are still passing. I didn’t get early insight into the big picture numbers of the study, but clearly it wasn’t a miracle cure. Any hospital physician could have probably told you months ago.

That being said, there is still hope it is somewhat effective for severe cases (the data suggests this). But this is still disappointing as far as it being useful as a precautionary/early tool for milder cases. Obviously to really change things with the pandemic we need something around 50% (or more) effective across the board, plus (of course) the vaccines. This sounds more like somethimg that slightly moves the needle for severe cases, but not much of a game changer.

 

FDA concluded review of the investigations into the AstaZeneca and J&J patient illnesses and both Phase 3 Trials have been given permission to continue in the United States.

Side note, the Brazilian trial participant who died Monday 10/19 was in the control group, and Brazilian regulators have confirmed it and has allowed the trial to continue.

WSJ News Exclusive | Pivotal Studies of Covid-19 Vaccines From AstraZeneca, J&J Resuming

 

Moderna has finally closed enrollment of its Phase 3 trial. It reached its 30,000 participant goal which included over 7000 Americans over the age of 65 and 5000 under 65 but with high risk co-morbidities. And now.....we wait.....

Moderna, now wrapped on phase 3 enrollment, touts diversity of vaccine trial participants

 

Interesting. Points to more testing needed to be done. I think though it has shown beneficial effects for treating covid.

 

Everyone needs to be careful about how they are reading some of this stuff. Remdesivir IS effective and now has been approved by the FDA as the only treatment for those infected by the Corona Virus SARS-CoV-2. In multiple, placebo controlled trials it has been shown the Remdesivir shortens the hospital stay by 33%.

So why the seemingly different and conflicting data? Answer simply is.....they are not.

Remdesivir is an anti-viral, which means if administered in the first 7-8 days of the infection (the viral phase), it can be very effective. However, once people cross into the inflammatory phase after the virus has been put in check, the Cytokine Storm, this drug has little to no benefit for patients.

Sadly, in many countries, they are not administering this drug, which is in short supply globally, until patients make it to ICU.....which is probably much too late in the course of the infection.

So, it makes sense that this drug speeds up positive outcomes and is of great value in that area. It also makes sense that if the infection is not caught early enough and people enter the cytokine phase, this drug does little to alter the likelihood of death.

Suffice it to say, if I test positive tomorrow, I am demanding this drug just like I were the president.

 

when administered early. much like tamiflu, if not given early in the infection it does little to no good.

 

This might explain why despite the FDA approval for its use on covid, I'm not seeing more discussion of it.

 

AstraZeneca has published the data from its Phase1/2 trials. Results were in line with expectations and sides effects appeared to be less severe in the old population, while still provoking a strong response for both antibodies and T-cells.

COVID-19 tracker: Johnson & Johnson thinks vaccine could be available by January; AstraZeneca shot triggers immune response in older adults

 

COVID-19 outpatients – early risk-stratified treatment with zinc plus low dose hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin: a retrospective case series study - ScienceDirect

"After 4 days (median, IQR 3-6, available for N=66/141) of onset of symptoms, 141 patients (median age 58 years, IQR 40-67; 73% male) received a prescription for the triple therapy for 5 days. Independent public reference data from 377 confirmed COVID-19 patients of the same community were used as untreated control. 4 of 141 treated patients (2.8%) were hospitalized, which was significantly less (p<0.001) compared with 58 of 377 untreated patients (15.4%) (odds ratio 0.16, 95% CI 0.06-0.5). One patient (0.7%) died in the treatment group versus 13 patients (3.5%) in the untreated group (odds ratio 0.2, 95% CI 0.03-1.5; p=0.12). There were no cardiac side effects."

Very promising if true. Hate that HCQ was politicized. Needs to be peer reviewed as well, but those are stark contrasts in numbers.