Covid-19 treatment drug undergoes tests in NZ
An experimental drug hoped to benefit Covid-19 infected patients across the globe is being tested in the Waikato.
The drug is aimed at preventing or reducing lung damage caused by medical ventilators. With over 10.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide, the number of patients hooked up to medical ventilators continues to rise.
The ventilators move air in and out of the lungs for those who are unable to breathe sufficiently on their own. However, the process can injure the lungs.
But Wintec academic Dr Kevin Stewart is hoping a medication developed by Auckland University may prevent or reduce that damage. To test it Stewart assembled a ‘‘lung rig’’ which simulates what happens when patients are put on a ventilator and accurately measures and imitates a pair of lungs. Measuring lung function and deterioration was difficult on people, Stewart said.
‘‘I can stretch the lungs in the same way as a mechanical ventilator does.’’
The trial medication is delivered to Stewart in small quantities. Artificial blood containing the medication is put through the lung rig, allowing Stewart to make measurements on how well the blood and medication are performing.
‘‘There has been a need for many years for people on ventilators and it is well known that there is no drug treatment available that can help people on ventilators,’’ Stewart said. ‘‘If we get this as a treatment it will be a first.’’
Stewart has been researching how diseases influence lung function for years and when the coronavirus pandemic emerged his knowledge was needed more than ever.
Between 40 and 95 per cent of ventilated patients can die, Stewart told Stuff.
‘‘When your lungs are in a bad way because of the virus, it can lead other organs like the heart, brain and kidneys to not get enough oxygen and people go into multiple organ failure and die.’’
In London, 83 per cent of 388 people on a ventilator died, 50 per cent of 18 ventilated died in Seattle, 94 per cent of Wuhan’s 37 ventilated died and 60 per cent of Italy’s 1300 patients needing respiratory support died, according to Stewart’s statistics.
The medication’s benefits won’t be known for another six or seven months and Stewart hopes it could one day be used to assist Covid-19 patients. Eventually, he hopes to test whether the drug can be inhaled. Before the project was approved for funding by the Health Research Council it clocked up $300,000 in costs. The research is unique to New Zealand as Stewart is the only one who is able to operate the lung rig. Auckland University had invited Stewart to set it up pre-Covid.
‘‘The equipment is tricky to operate as there are so many pumps and measurement devices but I like that sort of thing.’’
Stewart is working with a team from Auckland University led by primary investigator Professor Anthony Phillips.
Stewart teaches human anatomy and physiology to undergraduate and postgraduate nursing students, and he is also involved in delivering the Bachelor of Technology (Science) at Wintec.