In the news this week, the Trump Administration has made another deal to acquire all initial doses of a potential COVID-19 drug, in this case Regeneron’s REGN-COV2. This follows their acquisition of the first batches of Gilead’s remdesivir last week. In other news, inhaled remdesivir has begun trials in healthy patients, and a group of pharmaceutical companies has launched a $1 billion fund to develop new antibiotics.

MALARIA / H.I.V. DRUGS DON’T CUT COVID DEATH, W.H.O. FINDS – The World Health Organization has found that hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir are not effective at reducing COVID patient mortality in hospitals. The organisation has ended all solidarity trials using these with immediate effect. 

GILEAD BEGINS INHALED REMDESIVIR TRIALS FOR EARLY-STAGE CORONAVIRUS – Gilead has recruited the first healthy volunteers for trials of its inhaled formulation of remdesivir, which could treat early-stage COVID-19. Delivery of remdesivir to the lungs could reduce risk of side-effects. The phase 1a trial will enrol around 60 patients between 18 and 45, comparing inhaled remdesivir to a matched placebo. 

U.S. CLAIMING FIRST DOSES OF REGENERON’S COVID ANTIBODY – The Trump administration has made a deal to increase manufacturing of Regeneron’s REGN-COV2 and acquire the first vaccines, should it acquire emergency-use authorisation. This follows a similar deal with Gilead’s remdesivir last week. Regeneron recently began trials of the drug to prevent infection in those who have spent time near COVID-positive individuals, and moved into a phase 2/3 trial testing the drug’s ability to treat patients with coronavirus. The new deal with the U.S. government estimates that up to 300,000 therapeutic doses or up to 1.3 million prevention doses will be available by September 2020. 

In other news:

R&D
Drug maker group launches $1 billion fund to develop new antibiotics
Insilico Medicine and Arctoris collaborate on COVID-19 drug discovery

Clinical Trials
European Commission approves AZ’s Lynparza for pancreatic cancer use
Regeneron begins late-stage trial of Covid-19 REGN-COV2 cocktail
Remdesivir approved for COVID-19 in EU

Manufacturing
GSK and Sanofi near £500m Covid vaccine deal with UK

That’s all for now. See you next week!

Joshua Neil, Editor
Proventa International

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