More than 11,000 people have died from SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the current COVID-19 outbreak that has disrupted Worlds economy, not to mention daily life, and sent stocks plunging worldwide. Photo:Getty Images
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily MARCH 20th 2020
Coronavirus – What Developments are being made around a Cure?
Since the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus, scientists have been trying to develop a way to counter the illness, with efforts greatly rising all around the world since the virus had been labelled a ‘pandemic’. But what advances in the creation of a cure or countermeasure have actually been made thus far?
Over 250,000 cases of the coronavirus have been reported since the beginning of the outbreak, with more than 10,400 deaths, and 89,000 recoveries, according to updated statistics. Given the massive numbers of cases thus far, with many of them being spread around Europe, it’s only natural that scientists and medical experts would double their efforts in searching for a cure. The majority of course are drug developers.
The development of any sort of medicine or drug that helps combat certain viral bodies is not a quick process by any means. It involves trials, analysis, a redevelopment over a course of months if not weeks, and tests regarding allergies and side effects must always be made in order to test the overall safety of the medicine as a product. In times of pandemic crisis, labs all over the world are working on cures simultaneously, from China, to Japan, and even to Germany.
A German company in particular, called ‘BioNTech’, is taking the common vaccination approach with the virus. They are attempting to use mRNA strands to develop antibodies to the virus, that could henceforth be injected into a person and grant them immunity to it. They are only one among many companies to be attempting this method, though in one of various forms. It is a method that has worked in the past for other viral outbreaks, though not the only possible solution.
Recently, American pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly had partnered with Canadian firm AbCellera, in a joint effort to develop treatment options for the virus. More than 500 antibodies were discovered by AbCellera in a sample of blood from a survivor of the virus. They theorise that those antibodies could be used to develop a treatment against the virus, and are currently working with Eli Lilly to work on every antibody in hopes of identifying which would be most effective in the endeavour. They hope that within a span of four months, they will be able to begin treatment trials.
The majority of institutions currently working on a means of combating the virus are in the ‘preclinical’ stage of development – the stage of drug testing that precedes clinical trials, where theory and advancement are being worked out. After the preclinical stage, there are thought to be four more, phase I through to phase IV.
A few companies are at ‘phase I’ in their viral remedy development, which is mainly considered to be the stage where the safety of the drug or treatment in question are assessed. Phase II studies the efficiency of the treatments, whereas phase III goes into the area of blind testing on thousands of patients. Among the many searching for some way to combat the virus, Gilead Sciences, an American biotechnology company that researches, develops and commercializes drugs, is said to be at phase III in their testing at the moment.
For their treatment tests, a drug known as Remdesivir, which was previously tested and shown to have been ineffective in the treatment of the Ebola virus, is being administered among 1,000 patient volunteers in China. Reducing fevers and aiding patients’ symptoms to sooner get them out of the hospital within two weeks is the primarily goal of the company, in terms of the drugs tests. They hope to reduce the severity of the virus’ lethal effects overall.
With these new and often expensive vaccine and drug developments being made, however, it is unlikely that the world will be seeing any real solutions to the virus anytime soon when it comes to emerging treatments, given the amount of time necessary to fully assess them. There are present treatment options -and in them, possible eventual solutions- however, in existing medicine, as has been recently discovered in Japan.
Scientists in Japan have seen results when experimenting with the effects of existing medicines on the COVID-19 coronavirus, and the results so far have shown some promise. Particularly, as was expressed in a governmental panel, in a medicinal steroid commonly found in asthma inhalers called ‘Ciclesonide’. A drug that is said to put a halt to the virus’ multiplication, as well as control its inflammation.
The drug was administered experimentally to three victims of the virus, by a team of medicinal experts including a few Kanagawa Prefectural Ashigarakami Hospital members. Two of the patients, a woman in her 60s and a man in his 70s, were both able to be taken off respirators after taking the drug, while the third patient, a woman in her 70s, had undergone a drastic decrease in her fever within the space of two days. She was discharged from the hospital eight days after, having tested negative for the virus. Her pneumonia symptoms were also said to have improved overall, as a cause of the drug.
Ciclesonide was said to have been put into tests on COVID-19 victims after having been first used on those suffering from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). MERS is a syndrome caused by a different type of coronavirus, and It was shown to be effective in their treatment. This is all according to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID).
While the panic over the virus is high amongst the populous, and many are concerned over its spread thus far, many companies and institutions are doing whatever they can to try and get a grasp on it. Although progress may be slower than some people may prefer, solutions are being tried and tested as time goes by, and soon enough, a counter to the virus of some sort will be established – be it a treatment, vaccine, or otherwise.
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily
