Phl trial for Avigan may start in July
The clinical trial for Japan’s anti-flu drug Avigan as a possible treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may start next month, the Department of Health (DOH) announced yesterday.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the Avigan trial, in which the Philippines is participating, is expected to begin in July.
“What we are about to start would be the Avigan trial. This is with the help of the Japanese government which will be providing us with Avigan medicine,” Vergeire said at a press briefing.
She said the DOH is just waiting for the Avigan protocol and regulatory clearance before starting the trial.
In April, the Japanese government announced that 38 countries would be taking part in the clinical trial, including the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar.
WHO Solidarity Trial
Vergeire said that 330 patients in the Philippines volunteered to take part in the ongoing Solidarity Trial of the World Health Organization for medicine against COVID-19.
These patients will come from 21 participating hospitals. Five other health facilities have not determined the patients who will join the trial.
Vergeire said the country had stopped using hydroxychloroquine in the ongoing WHO trial.
“We stopped using hydroxychloroquine. We are only using three drugs (for the program),” she said, referring to Remdesivir, Lopinavir with Ritonavir and Lopinavir with Ritonavir plus Interferon beta-1a.
Last week, WHO removed hydroxychloroquine from the list after finding out that it did not reduce the mortality rate for COVID-19 patients.
Partnership
The Philippines is looking into a potential partnership with a Belgian research team in developing a vaccine for COVID-19.
Ambassador Eduardo Jose de Vega recently met with officials of the Neyts Lab of Virology, Antiviral Drug and Vaccine Research; Rega Institute for Medical Research, and Katholieke Universiteit (KU) Leuven, who are trying to develop a safe and efficient vaccine for the virus.
The Rega Institute is currently developing the RegaVax(corona), a live attenuated reagent developed in cultured cells that is based on the yellow fever vaccine, which has been used on 800 million people for over 80 years.
Johan Neyts, virology professor and president of the International Society for Antiviral Research, said they are conducting tedious and extensive animal research without rushing into immediate human testing.
Neyts said they are targeting a vaccine that only requires one shot and thus manageable for health authorities to implement in terms of budget and logistics.
He said if their animal testing would not encounter any catastrophic failures in the coming months, the research team is targeting the end of 2020 to begin Phase 1 of human trials with 50 to 100 healthy volunteers in Belgium.
If Phase 1 proves to be successful, they will begin with Phase 2 onward by early 2021 and will need a total of 2,000 healthy volunteers from different countries, which may include the Philippines.
According to the embassy, the research team showed a considerable interest in the Philippines, saying it is also developing drugs for rabies and dengue.