COVID-19 Treatment Tracker

Pharmaceutical companies, labs and other health organisations globally are working on different kinds of products, and doing research to find a cure for Covid-19.

Treatments will be the best options till a vaccine is developed. There are many potential treatments that may emerge out of these studies/trials.

Here, we have listed 9 treatments which are being conducted by different drug developers. These treatment trials are under different clinical stages. Have a look:

1. Remdesivir By Gilead Sciences

Stage: Phase 3 (authorized for emergency use in the U.S.)

Gilead is conducting two randomized, open-label, multicenter, Phase 3 clinical studies to evaluate the safety and efficacy of two dosing durations – 5 days and 10 days – of remdesivir in adults diagnosed with COVID-19.

The first of the two SIMPLE studies evaluated the safety and efficacy of both 5-day and 10-day dosing durations of remdesivir, in patients with severe COVID-19.

The second SIMPLE study is evaluating the safety and efficacy of 5-day and 10-day dosing regimens of remdesivir, compared with standard of care alone, in patients with moderate COVID-19.

REMDACTA Trial: Gilead is working in collaboration with Roche to evaluate the safety and efficacy of remdesivir in combination with tocilizumab, an anti-inflammatory drug, compared to remdesivir plus placebo in patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia.

Latest Updates: May 22: The National Institutes of Health publishes full Phase 1 data in the New England Journal of Medicine

I had Mike Milken back on #FridaysWithFrank to give us an update on COVID-19 treatments.

You can follow the @MilkenInstitute’s COVID-19 Treatment & Vaccine Tracker to see the latest: https://t.co/PeQNxfSZbg

Our full conversation is on YouTube now: https://t.co/jYjDZd43jJ pic.twitter.com/exqcldCIsS

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) June 13, 2020

2. Gimsilumab By Roivant Sciences

Stage: Phase 3

Roivant Sciences has dosed the first participant in the BREATHE clinical trial of monoclonal antibody gimsilumab to treat Covid-19 patients with lung injury or acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Dosing occurred at Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia, and will be immediately commenced at other sites.

Gimsilumab is a fully human monoclonal antibody that acts on granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF).

Latest Update:  April 15: Roivant doses first patient in a placebo-controled trial enrolling Covid-19 patients with acute lung injury or ARDS. The primary goal is improving mortality after 43 days. The trial will enroll up to 270 patients.

3. MultiStem Cell Therapy By Athersys

Stage: Phase 2

Athersys and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center (UH Cleveland) have initiated the first clinical site for the MACOVIA trial of MultiStem Cell Therapy to treat Covid-19.

The company received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorisation on 13 April to conduct the MACOVIA trial. UH Cleveland is the first site for the trial and is set to screen participants.

Intended for the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) caused by Covid-19, the randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study will involve around 400 participants at pulmonary critical care centres across the US.

The multidimensional therapeutic effect of MultiStem Cell Therapy is expected to allow its use to treat ARDS related to different causes, including Covid-19.

MACOVIA will assess the safety and efficacy of MultiStem therapy in patients with moderate to severe ARDS associated with Covid-19.

YOU MAY LIKE TO READ: COVID-19: US Human Trials Begin For First Antibody Cocktail

4. Danoprevir by Ascletis Pharma 

Stage: Phase 1

Ascletis Pharma announced the first clinical study using Ganovo (danoprevir) to treat naive and experienced COVID-19 patients was published in medRxiv.

The data from this small-sample clinical study showed that danoprevir combined with ritonavir is safe and well tolerated in all patients. After 4 to 12-day treatment of danoprevir combined with ritonavir, all 11 moderate COVID-19 patients enrolled, two naive and nine experienced, were discharged from the hospital as they met all four conditions as follows: (1) normal body temperature for at least 3 days; (2) significantly improved respiratory symptoms; (3) lung imaging shows obvious absorption and recovery of acute exudative lesion; and (4) two consecutive RT-PCR negative tests of SARS-CoV-2 nucleotide acid (respiratory track sampling with interval at least one day).

Latest Update: March 25: Ascletis reports that 11 patients with moderate Covid-19 were discharged from the hospital after four to 12 days of treatment with the combination

5. CYNK-001 by Celularity’s

Stage: Phase 1

Celularity Inc., a clinical-stage company developing allogeneic cellular therapies from human placentas, on April 9 announced the expansion of its existing collaborative license agreement with United Therapeutics Corporation’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Lung Biotechnology PBC, to include the treatment of COVID-19 and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS).

This announcement builds on recent pioneering work by Celularity for the use of its proprietary CYNK-001 for the treatment of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the coronavirus disease, COVID-19, and extends this application of the technology to ARDS. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently cleared Celularity’s investigational new drug application (IND 019650) to evaluate CYNK-001’s safety, tolerability, and efficacy for the treatment of COVID-19.

Latest Update: April 2: Celularity got the FDA’s permission to begin a Phase 1 trial

6. I-Mab’s TJM2

Stage: Phase 1

I-Mab Biopharma has initiated the development of TJM2 (TJ003234) to treat cytokine storm associated with severe and critical illness caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

TJM2 is an I-Mab-discovered neutralizing antibody against human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), an important cytokine that plays a critical role in acute and chronic inflammation.

Latest Updates: April 3: The FDA signed off on I-Mab’s plan for a placebo-controlled trial, which the company said it would begin “as soon as possible”.

7. Eli Lilly’s Antibody Treatments 

Stage: Phase 1

Eli Lilly and Co on June 15 said it was launching a study of its rheumatoid arthritis drug baricitinib in patients hospitalized for COVID-19.

The trial is one of several efforts by the U.S. drugmaker to help combat the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 400,000 people globally, according to a Reuters tally.

The drug is being tested to see if it can reduce deaths from the COVID-19 illness and lessen its severity. Scientists at Lilly believe that baricitinib could help suppress a potentially lethal immune response to COVID-19 called “cytokine storm” and reduce COVID-19’s ability to reproduce in infected cells.

The trial began dosing patients last week and plans to enroll around 400 patients globally. Lilly could potentially obtain U.S. regulatory approval for the drug as soon as August, Patrik Jonsson, the president of Lilly Bio-Medicines, told Reuters in an interview.

Lilly has also been working with the National Institutes of Health to study baricitinib, which is branded Olumiant, in a pairing with Gilead Sciences Inc’s antiviral drug remdesivir. That study began enrolling patients last month.

8. REGN-COV2 By Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

Stage: Phase 1

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals on June 11 announced initiation of the first clinical trial of REGN-COV2, its investigational dual antibody cocktail for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. The REGN-COV2 clinical program will consist of four separate study populations: hospitalized COVID-19 patients, non-hospitalized symptomatic COVID-19 patients, uninfected people in groups that are at high-risk of exposure (such as healthcare workers or first responders) and uninfected people with close exposure to a COVID-19 patient (such as the patient’s housemate). The placebo-controlled trials will be conducted at multiple sites.

Learn how insights from Cotiviti's COVID-19 Outbreak Tracker can open the door to a much more targeted approach for treatment: https://t.co/0MPARF7ALU via @HIMSS #analytics #healthtech #healthcare

— Cotiviti (@Cotiviti) June 12, 2020

9. EIDD-2801 By Merck & Ridgeback Biotherapeutics

Stage: Phase 1

Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, a privately held biotech company, has an exclusive license to develop an antiviral invented at Emory University. Called EIDD-2801, the drug is designed to interrupt the process by which viruses replicate. The mechanism is similar to that of Gilead Sciences’ intravenous remdesivir, but EIDD-2801 is an oral medicine. In animal studies, the drug has demonstrated promise against SARS and MERS, which are related to the novel coronavirus.