Pfizer says early studies of potential coronavirus treatment show promise

[CrazyZ]

Pfizer says early studies of potential coronavirus treatment show promise
By Reuters on April 9, 2020

• It also announced a five-point plan for confronting the virus that includes collaborating with outside companies and institutions on the research, development and manufacture of treatments.
  
• Pfizer said it will conduct additional preclinical studies and aims to begin trials in humans in the third quarter of 2020.
  

NEWYORK: US drugmaker Pfizer Inc said on Thursday that early data has helped it identify a drug candidate with the potential to help treat patients infected with the novel coronavirus.

It also said it plans to support studies to determine whether existing Pfizer medicines, including its rheumatoid arthritis drug Xeljanz, may provide benefits for those struggling with the COVID-19 respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus.

More than a dozen large drugmakers, including Pfizer, have announced plans in recent months to develop vaccines and treatments for the coronavirus, although few if any are likely to reach patients in time to stem the current outbreak.

Pfizer first revealed plans to try to develop an antiviral compound for COVID-19 in March, and later said it was working with BioNTech SE on a potential vaccine based on messenger RNA technology.

It also announced a five-point plan for confronting the virus that includes collaborating with outside companies and institutions on the research, development and manufacture of treatments.

“Pfizer has mobilized resources and capabilities to address every single frontier of the COVID-19 pandemic," Pfizer research chief Mikael Dolsten told Reuters in an interview.

Data from preclinical studies shows that a compound that was originally developed to treat SARS – a different coronavirus that caused a major epidemic in 2003 – has the potential to treat patients with the new coronavirus, Dolsten said.

Pfizer said it will conduct additional preclinical studies and aims to begin trials in humans in the third quarter of 2020.

Meanwhile, Pfizer will help fund a study into whether Xeljanz, which belongs to a class of drugs called JAK inhibitors and also treats the autoimmune disease ulcerative colitis, can help patients with pneumonia caused by COVID-19.

Rheumatoid arthritis treatments from other drugmakers that work differently than Xeljanz are also being studied as possible COVID-19 treatments.

Pfizer is also looking into the potential of other drugs that work on the immune system to help coronavirus patients, the company said.

The company is also working with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine on two studies to better understand the relationship between coronavirus and pneumonia, which plays a role in many deaths caused by the virus that attacks the lungs.

Pfizer will also publish a review of research into whether its antibiotic azithromycin, sold under the brand name Zithromax, can play a role in treating COVID-19.

Azithromycin has been used with the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine by some doctors after a French study suggested the combination might benefit some COVID-19 patients.

https://www.brecorder.com/2020/04/0...potential-coronavirus-treatment-show-promise/

 

[masterchief_mirza]

Interesting to know if the combination has any proven effect. So far, it was hydroxychloroquine alone that was being proposed in several countries, including Pakistan.

 

[Turingsage]

Clinical trials underway for promising new COVID-19 treatment that wouldn’t face FDA hurdle

Published

1 min ago
on

April 9, 2020
By

Travis Gettys

• 
  

A handful of hospitals have started clinical trials to test a new treatment for the coronavirus.

Hospitals in Boston, Alabama, Louisiana, Sweden and Austria are testing nitric oxide, a gas that relaxes blood vessels and could improve breathing, on patients with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19.

“It’s a gas that typically is used in babies with high lung pressure,” said Dr. Pankaj Arora, who is helping to administer the trial at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “It’s FDA-approved for use in babies with high lung pressure, and we use it in some of our adult patients. In cardiology, we use it in our adult patients when the pulmonary pressures, pressures in the lungs, are very high.”





The molecule, which is not the same as nitrous oxide or laughing gas, is already used to treat heart disease, erectile dysfunction and respiratory illness.

Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism today.


“We have tremendous confidence this therapy will alter the devastating effects of COVID-19 but we must test it,” Dr. Keith Scott, principal investigator at Louisiana State University Health in Shreveport. “If results show promise, and since this gas is already FDA approved, widespread use could begin immediately.”



00:00 00:44

The treatment has shown promise on COVID-19 patients in Italy, and a second trial at Massachusetts General Hospital examines whether the gas can mitigate the onset of the virus for health care workers constantly exposed to coronavirus patients.

UAB’s trial builds on research conducted during the SARS epidemic in 2002-2003, when doctors found the gas improved lung function and also showed some anti-virus properties.

“The current [coronavirus] is quite similar to the one which was there in 2002-2003, and back then they tested this gas in patients of SARS and found that they were doing exceptionally well,” Dr. Vibhu Parcha, who is also administering UAB’s trial, “and they further tested it and they found that this gas was also causing prevention of the growth of the virus.”


https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/cl...id-19-treatment-that-wouldnt-face-fda-hurdle/

 

[masterchief_mirza]

Clinical trials underway for promising new COVID-19 treatment that wouldn’t face FDA hurdle

Published

1 min ago
on

April 9, 2020
By

Travis Gettys

• 
  

A handful of hospitals have started clinical trials to test a new treatment for the coronavirus.

Hospitals in Boston, Alabama, Louisiana, Sweden and Austria are testing nitric oxide, a gas that relaxes blood vessels and could improve breathing, on patients with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19.

“It’s a gas that typically is used in babies with high lung pressure,” said Dr. Pankaj Arora, who is helping to administer the trial at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “It’s FDA-approved for use in babies with high lung pressure, and we use it in some of our adult patients. In cardiology, we use it in our adult patients when the pulmonary pressures, pressures in the lungs, are very high.”





The molecule, which is not the same as nitrous oxide or laughing gas, is already used to treat heart disease, erectile dysfunction and respiratory illness.

Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism today.


“We have tremendous confidence this therapy will alter the devastating effects of COVID-19 but we must test it,” Dr. Keith Scott, principal investigator at Louisiana State University Health in Shreveport. “If results show promise, and since this gas is already FDA approved, widespread use could begin immediately.”



00:00 00:44

The treatment has shown promise on COVID-19 patients in Italy, and a second trial at Massachusetts General Hospital examines whether the gas can mitigate the onset of the virus for health care workers constantly exposed to coronavirus patients.

UAB’s trial builds on research conducted during the SARS epidemic in 2002-2003, when doctors found the gas improved lung function and also showed some anti-virus properties.

“The current [coronavirus] is quite similar to the one which was there in 2002-2003, and back then they tested this gas in patients of SARS and found that they were doing exceptionally well,” Dr. Vibhu Parcha, who is also administering UAB’s trial, “and they further tested it and they found that this gas was also causing prevention of the growth of the virus.”


https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/cl...id-19-treatment-that-wouldnt-face-fda-hurdle/

Why are Hindu names in bold font?

 

[I S I]

Why are Hindu names in bold font?

Because they gonna be savior of humaniTitty.

 

[masterchief_mirza]

Because they gonna be savior of humaniTitty.

Be that as it may, if the poster was fishing for some ego massage, all he had to do was ask directly. I'd have gladly lit a diya or banged a pot in sympathy.