Optimism on treatments
BREAKTHROUGH new treatments for coronavirus are likely to be deployed to hospitals within weeks — at least 18 months ahead of any likely vaccine.
Fifty Australian hospitals will be given two drugs used to treat malaria and HIV AIDS in a clinical trial that promises to “cure” the virus.
Additionally, the outcomes of the first trial of a promising treatment for COVID-19 will be reported within weeks and the drug could be approved for use in China as early as May.
The news comes as News Corp can reveal the Federal Government will provide researchers with $13 million to fast-track coronavirus treatments.
The cash injection from the Medical Research Future Fund includes $8 million to develop antiviral therapies for people who contract the virus.
Up to 10 treatments are expected to be tested, with the most promising options pushed rapidly through human clinical trials to regulatory approval and commercialisation.
Another $5 million will be spent on clinical trials to help patients with severe acute respiratory distress, which can be fatal, especially among older people and those with compromised immune systems and chronic illnesses.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said Australian researchers had “outstanding capacity to contribute to global efforts to control the outbreak and save lives”.
He said the funding was part of the Government’s $2.4 billion coronavirus national health plan.
“Australia has produced some of the world’s best medical research,” Mr Hunt said.
The World Health Organisation has declared the medication - Remedsivir - to be one of the most promising treatments for COVID-19.
The hunt for a treatment and a vaccine for COVID-19 is proceeding at a spectacular pace with some scientists skipping animal trials as they race to find a way of halting the death toll.
And scientists and medical journals are freely sharing early results of clinical trials before they are peer reviewed to progress research as quickly as possible.
In France, scientists have reported success beating COVID-19 using antimalarial drug Chloroquine.
Only 25 per cent of patients treated with the drug still showed signs of the virus compared to 90 per cent of patients who did not receive the treatment in a small trial.
Researchers at Queensland University are hoping to begin animal trials of its COVID-19 vaccine next month and Griffith University said it had signed a deal with Queensland-based Luina Bio to work on a vaccine. However, it could be 12-18 months before a vaccine is ready.