focusIR May 2024 Investor Webinar: Blue Whale, Kavango, Taseko Mines & CQS Natural Resources. Catch up with the webinar here.
https://academic.oup.com/ofid/article/9/Supplement_2/ofac492.1879/6903622?login=false
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/20/politics/spending-bill-congress-omnibus/index.html
"Plus, the package would provide more money for National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. The funds are intended to speed the development of new therapies, diagnostics and preventive measures, beef up public health activities and strengthen the nation's biosecurity by accelerating development of medical countermeasures for pandemic threats and fortifying stockpiles and supply chains for drugs, masks and other supplies."
Thanks Titiania - I hadn't seen this before - the docs look to date back as far as Apr 22 and the detail on the objectives is really interesting
Objectives
Primary:
To develop phenotypic characterisation of the heterogeneous nature of acute respiratory viral infection and recovery seen in patients admitted to hospital with respiratory symptoms.
Secondary:
To enable accurate stratification of patients for optimal design of future studies of novel pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment strategies.
Health care Cost estimate for each patient.
To provide co-ordinated link to the central facility for sample storage.
Tertiary:
To enable a precision medicine strategy through detection of immune and inflammatory biomarkers associated with virus type and disease trajectory.
News today stateside that the Pandemic Preparedness Act is to be included in the mandatory spending bill that Congress must pass before Friday.
https://www.axios.com/pro/health-care-policy/2022/12/19/pandemic-prep-covid-omnibus-cdc
This is the same bill Rick Bright passionately called on Congress to pass, just before he stated the need for broad spectrum therapeutics that can treat multiple pathogens
There is a good top line summary of what's in the bill here -
https://www.help.senate.gov/download/prevent-pandemics-discussion-draft-sxs-final
SMH
"Overall, 121 (18%) of 659 patients allocated to higher dose corticosteroids versus 75 (12%) of 613 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio [RR] 1·56; 95% CI 1·18-2·06; p=0·0020). There was also an excess of pneumonia reported to be due to non-COVID infection (10% vs. 6%; absolute difference 3.7%; 95% CI 0.7-6.6) and an increase in hyperglycaemia requiring increased insulin dose (22% vs. 14%; absolute difference 7.4%; 95% CI 3.2-11.5)."
https://twitter.com/PeterHorby/status/1604774719294619648?t=_tuB_dU-cJxsTQoGBJz-gg&s=19
Not great.
This should be ready to read out soon no? If SNG001 is available in France on ATU do you think Dr Mary is using the product or a generic form? Interesting that it's double dose to start as well.
Type :
Interventional (Clinical Trial)
Estimated Enrollment :
146 participants
Allocation:
Randomized
Intervention Model:
Parallel Assignment
Masking:
Triple (Participant, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary Purpose:
Treatment
Official Title:
Treatment of COVID-19 by Nebulization of Inteferon Beta 1b Efficiency and Safety Study
Actual Study Start Date :
September 20, 2020
Estimated Primary Completion Date :
March 2022
Estimated Study Completion Date :
March 2022
I think the initial point, the situation in China and their first real wave since Wuhan, is feasible in terms of bringing potential new treatments in to view, but again it's really really hard to see a UK/US biotech getting any sort of traction. That said, should they start successfully using a form of inhaled inf - it can only be a good thing for SNG001
Brief Summary:
COVID-19 is causing a serious viral pandemic in terms of health and social impact. To date, no treatment has yet demonstrated Strong efficacy in treating the infectious disease (COVID-19). Pulmonary administration of Interferon (IFN) type I is a therapeutic strategy with high potential,due to higher local concentrations and minimal adverse effects. Type I interferons (including IFN-a and IFN-ß) are antiviral defence cytokines and also have the potential to negatively modulate IFN Type II and IL-6 dependent cytokine storm, the latter being induced in the late forms of COVID-19. In vitro, IFN-ß were more effective on COVID-19 than IFN-a. In existing preliminary studies, only patients receiving IFN type I modulators have a decrease in viral carriage and a rapid reversal. The purpose of this project is to assess in hospitalized patients with oxygen for COVID 19, the clinical efficacy on oxygen requirements of the addition of inhaled Interferon type I compared to the control arm .
Bright mentioned something along the lines of " we can now develop new drugs for combination therapy and host directed treatments that strengthen our immune systems against multiple pathogens"
Link to the subcommittee hearing w live stream featuring Rick Bright below
https://coronavirus.house.gov/subcommittee-activity/hearings/preparing-and-preventing-next-public-health-emergency-lessons-learned