City hospital patient to be first to trial coronavirus cure
A UNIVERSITY Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire patient is to be the first to trial a coronavirus cure.
The consenting patient is to be enrolled onto the clinical trial, alongside 120 other patients with moderate to severe Covid-19 symptoms across UK hospitals.
Pharmaceutical company Immunic has worked with UHCW to create a potential cure using drugs that were already available - including the widely used Tamiflu. The flu treatment will be used with an inhibitor called IMU-838, with clinical improvement monitored using scores created by the World Health Organisation.
Professor Ramesh Arasaradnam is a Gastroenterology Consultant at UHCW NHS Trust, as well as chief investigator of the trial.
He said: “The healthcare community has never faced a more urgent need for new, innovative treatments than the unprecedented situation we currently face with COVID-19.
“Third-party research has highlighted the powerful synergy between direct antiviral drugs and DHODH inhibitors in preclinical models. Although these results require corroboration in larger studies and in individuals infected with COVID-19, we believe that the combination of IMU838 and Oseltamivir may offer a promising approach for the treatment of severe viral infections, including moderate to severe COVID-19 patients.
“The data collected may be able to provide us useful insights in the management of patients during the upcoming flu season later in the year.”
The trial will see how well the drugs work together, compared to the use of Tamiflu alone for 14 days.
Professor Arasaradnam, supported by the in-house Trial Management Unit at UHCW, secured funding for the trial from the medical research charity LifeArc.
Melanie Lee, CEO of LifeArc, commented: “LifeArc has made £10m available for the development of new therapeutics to support the global effort against COVID-19.
“Repurposing already available drugs or those in the late stage of development offers the fastest route to bring benefit to patients at this critical time.”