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The president of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, David Ricks, said the pharmaceutical industry “remains committed” to ensuring that drugs are “available and accessible to all patients who need them.”
For the director general of the IFPMA, Thomas Cueni, “there will hardly be a magic formula for everyone against covid-19”, but this should not be an “excuse” for not diligently approving “new treatments or vaccines”.
To date, there is no specific treatment for Covid-19, only medications that target the symptoms, signs, and secondary infections triggered by the disease.
While waiting for a drug targeting the disease, drugs that have been designed to combat other pathologies have been used experimentally, while their efficacy and safety have been demonstrated in larger clinical trials.
The treatments for COVID-19 that are being tested vary according to their performance in the body (if they have a direct action on the virus or on the immune system) and the possible benefits for different groups of patients, depending on their condition. gravity.
A study concluded that the anti-inflammatory dexamethasone, licensed in Portugal since the 1960s, reduces the risk of death in ventilated patients.
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended the use of corticosteroids (which have an anti-inflammatory action) in the treatment of patients with severe covid-19.
The antiviral remdesivir, developed by Gilead Sciences to fight infections caused by the Ebola virus and the MERS coronavirus, has helped, according to some studies, in the recovery of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Its conditioning use in Europe was approved in July.
Portugal is part of a large-scale clinical trial promoted by WHO for the therapeutic use of remdesivir in covid-19.
The experimental oral antiviral ‘MK-4482’, designed by the pharmaceutical company MSD to attack the influenza virus, but which has been shown to have an action against the replication of SARS-CoV-2, at the origin of covid-19, begins to be tested this month in treating inpatients and outpatients.
Used experimentally to treat Ebola infection, the flu-like flu-like favipiravir developed in Japan is also being tested for COVID-19 in several countries.
In contrast, the antivirals lopinavir and ritonavir, used to treat HIV / AIDS, were tested in patients with COVID-19, but had no significant benefit: They did not reduce the death of hospitalized patients and caused serious adverse effects on the kidneys. WHO discontinued clinical trials with these drugs.
Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine antimalarials, which have apparently shown promise for the novel coronavirus in laboratory tests, ultimately pose risks for COVID-19 patients.
Due to doubts about its efficacy and safety, the WHO has suspended clinical trials with hydroxychloroquine and several countries, such as France, Italy and Belgium, have suspended its therapeutic use in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Portugal recommended its suspension.
The immunomodelling drug tocilizumab, manufactured by Roche’s laboratory and indicated for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease, caused a small, notable improvement in patients with severe COVID-19, with associated pneumonia. The pharmaceutical company hopes to increase its benefits in the infection by the new coronavirus when combined with the antiviral remdesivir.
Several pharmaceutical companies are testing monoclonal antibodies that neutralize SARS-CoV-2.
The protein ‘interferon beta-1a’, produced naturally by the body to regulate cell function and given to patients with multiple sclerosis, is also being tested due to the positive effects reported in the treatment of the most severe cases of covid-19. .
The treatment, also experimental, with blood plasma from recovered patients has been applied to other patients, in very specific and serious situations, in which the body’s defenses (immune system) are very weak, but it is not without risks, such as intolerance. , according to experts.
Pharmaceutical companies have partnered to develop a possible blood plasma-based therapy (which also contains neutralizing antibodies) for COVID-19.
The Polish biotech company Biomed announced in August the launch of the first phase of production of an experimental drug against COVID-19 based on blood plasma from miners who recovered from a respiratory illness.
The drug will begin testing in late October at various hospitals.
In a first phase, the Biomed company will have the capacity to manufacture around 3,000 doses of the experimental injectable drug, which ensures that it can be administered to any patient, regardless of blood group.
In May, the Portuguese Institute for Blood and Transplants announced the start of collecting blood plasma from recovered patients for clinical trials.
Antibiotics have been given to fight opportunistic infections caused by bacteria.
The covid-19 pandemic has already claimed at least 863,679 deaths and infected more than 26 million people in 196 countries and territories, according to a report by the French news agency AFP.
In Portugal 1,829 people died of the 59,051 confirmed as infected, according to the latest bulletin from the Directorate General of Health.
Covid-19 is transmitted by a new coronavirus (type of virus) detected at the end of December in Wuhan, a city in central China.
