Drugmaker Touts Trial Results Of Potential Coronavirus Treatment
British pharmaceutical company Synairgen says its nebulizer treatment produced a 79% lower risk of COVID-19 patients developing a severe form of the disease than those given a placebo in initial trials. Other drug trial news related to hydroxychloroquine is also reported.
British pharmaceutical company Synairgen has claimed that its new respiratory coronavirus treatment has reduced the number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients needing intensive care in a clinical trial. The company said its nebulizer treatment produced a 79% lower risk of patients developing severe disease than those given a placebo in initial trials, and patients that received the treatment 鈥渨ere more than twice as likely to recover (defined as 鈥榥o limitation of activities鈥 or 鈥榥o clinical or virological evidence of infection鈥) over the course of the treatment period compared to those receiving placebo,鈥 Synairgen claimed. (Smith, 7/20)
The company said that no deaths were reported in patients treated with SNG001, while three people died after being randomised to placebo. The measure of breathlessness was also markedly reduced in patients who received the drug, Synairgen added. (7/20)
An experimental coronavirus treatment has been hailed a 鈥渂reakthrough鈥 in the fight against the outbreak. Southampton-based biotech firm Synairgen tested the inhaled protein interferon beta on 101 patients across nine UK hospitals. Preliminary results reveal those given the treatment were 79% less likely to develop particularly severe disease, like requiring ventilation, than the patients on placebo. (Thompson, 7/20)
Data from a large randomized controlled trial in the United Kingdom showing a benefit from use of the steroid dexamethasone in hospitalized COVID-19 patients was released today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), while two more studies show no benefit for the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. (7/17)
