Past successes can transform health care’s future

As soon as COVID-19 emerged, some scientists began developing potential treatments from scratch.

But many other scientists realized those development efforts — though muchneeded — would probably take years. And patients didn’t have time to wait. Lives were hanging on the line. So researchers started testing whether any alreadyexisting drugs and technologies might stave off the virus.

Their efforts paid off. Clinical trials showed that remdesivir, an antiviral originally developed to treat Ebola, could help hospitalized patients recover faster. Tocilizumab and sarilumab, two arthritis drugs, showed promise in treating patients with severe COVID-19. So did dexamethasone, a common steroid.

Scientists’ ingenuity saved thousands of lives. And their strategy — of using existing drugs and technologies in new ways — could help us overcome not just COVID19, but future pandemics too.

I’ve seen firsthand how researchers are adapting existing technologies to fight COVID-19.

For example, medical professionals have long known that ultraviolet light, particularly the highest wavelength variety known as “ultraviolet A” light, can kill pathogens.

Many hospitals already use devices that emit UV light to disinfect surfaces. But since 2016, some scientists at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have hypothesized that doctors could deploy these low-level rays inside a patient’s body to kill bacteria or viruses.

When COVID-19 struck, these researchers put their idea to the test. My company, Aytu BioScience, is hoping to commercialize their “Healight” device, which uses a catheter to deliver virus-killing UV light inside intubated COVID-19 patients. Researchers recently wrapped up a first round of clinical trials. If further trials prove successful, and the device gains regulatory clearance or authorization, it could potentially save many of the sickest COVID-19 patients’ lives.

Developing a new drug from scratch can take more than a decade. Often, waiting that long simply isn’t an option. That’s why older, underutilized technologies have so much potential.

Consider the problem of antimicrobial resistance. Certain bacteria, colloquially known as “superbugs,” are evolving and becoming immune to existing antibiotics. An estimated 10 million people worldwide will die each year from these drugresistant microbes by 2050, unless better treatments are discovered, according to the World Health Organization.

Unfortunately, developing traditional antibiotics is expensive and offers dismal returns. Several antibiotics research startups have gone bankrupt in recent years. Even most of the big pharmaceutical companies have abandoned antibiotics research altogether.

As a result, many scientists are pivoting their attention to “bacteriophage therapies.” For nearly a century, scientists have used these viruses to snuff out bacterial infections. Normal phage viruses suffer the same flaw as antibiotics — deadly superbugs can simply evolve and become immune.

But nimble startups have started genetically engineering these bacteriophage therapies, in the hopes that a specially tailored virus could kill off certain superbugs once and for all. If these startups succeed where traditional pharmaceutical firms have failed, their innovative techniques could save millions of lives.

Taking older, underappreciated ideas and applying them to current healthcare challenges can be risky, of course. When a company like mine attempts to commercialize a medical device or treatment, there’s no guarantee that the time and resources we invest will result in a successful product.

It’s for this reason that our political leaders must avoid policies that further complicate this risky, time-consuming process, including fiat drug price controls advocated by some lawmakers. By restricting what bioscience companies can charge for their products, such policies will deter investment in much-needed medical innovation — including projects that make use of existing principles and technologies.

A better way to reduce drug prices is to address misaligned incentives in the system, such as the rebate structure that often discourages the use of lower-priced alternatives.

Encouraging companies to deploy and commercialize existing drugs and technologies will safeguard our health, reduce drug costs and help treat some of the world’s deadliest diseases.