AstraZeneca to trial diabetes drug on Covid-19 patients

(Sharecast News) - UK based pharma company AstraZeneca and Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute have started Phase III trials on the use of diabetes drug Farxiga to minimise the risk of serious complications from the Covid-19 disease.
The drug will be tested on patients hospitalised with the disease who are at risk of developing a serious condition such as organ failure. It will be tested in the US and in some European countries with a high number of infected people.

The trial design is supported by extensive data on the protective effect of Farxiga in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, chronic kidney disease or type 2 diabetes.

Mene Pangalos, Executive Vice President, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, said: "AstraZeneca is committed to finding new solutions to fight COVID-19 by investigating the application of our new and existing medicines."

Mikhail N. Kosiborod, M.D., cardiologist at Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute, Vice President of Research at Saint Luke's Health System, and principal investigator of DARE-19 said: "Dapagliflozin has demonstrated cardio and renal protective benefits and improved outcomes in high-risk patients with type-2 diabetes, heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, and chronic kidney disease. Through DARE-19, we hope to decrease the severity of illness, and prevent cardiovascular, respiratory and kidney decompensation, which are common in patients with COVID-19."

In a press release, AstraZeneca said that it was researching the disease and focusing on key areas for its defeat such as identifying novel coronavirus-neutralising antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus to prevent or treat disease progression and investigating the application of new and existing medicines to suppress the body's overactive immune response.