By Ludwig Burger
FRANKFURT, June 5 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca's cancer
drug Calquence has shown initial signs of helping hospitalised
COVID-19 patients get through the worst of the disease, as
researchers scramble to repurpose existing treatments to help
fight the deadly infection.
Results from the preliminary research involving 19 patients,
which was backed by the United States National Institutes of
Health, encouraged the British drugmaker to explore the drug's
new use in a wider clinical trial announced in April.
Eleven patients had been on oxygen when they started the
10-14 day Calquence course and eight of them could afterwards be
discharged, breathing independently, according to results in a
paper co-authored by Astra's head of oncology research, Jose
Baselga.
Eight patients were on mechanical ventilation when they were
put on Calquence, and four of them could be discharged, though
one died of pulmonary embolism.
"These patients were in a very unstable situation, they
would have had a dire prognosis ... Within one to three days the
majority of these patients got better in terms of ventilation
and oxygen needs," Astra's Baselga told Reuters.
Severe cases of COVID-19 are believed to be triggered by an
over-reaction of the immune system known as cytokine storm and
initial research has brought Calquence, and other drugs that
suppress certain elements of the immune system, into play.
Autoimmune disease drugs that are being tested for their
ability to quell the cytokine storm include Regeneron
and Sanofi's Kevzara, Roche's Actemra as well
as Morphosys and GlaxoSmithKline's otilimab.
In its approved use, Calquence competes with AbbVie and
Johnson & Johnson’s established treatment Imbruvica as a
treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, a common type of
adult leukaemia.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)