Prof James Chalmers Professor heading up virus drug trial
Perth expert hoping to‘put brake’on disease
Our researchers have been studying this kind of lung inflammation for more than 10 years and so are in the perfect position to rapidly intervene...
A professor from Perth is leading Scotland’s first trial of a medicine to treat COVID-19.
As the world eagerly awaits a medical breakthrough, a Scottish university team has condensed a year’s worth of research into three weeks to come up with a treatment.
It is hoped the treatment could prevent the need for patients to be ventilated.
Professor James Chalmers, who lives in Perth, is heading up the Dundee University team conducting the trial.
The team has partnered with global biopharmaceutical company Insmed Inc to conduct trials of brensocatib (formerly known as INS1007). Insmed will provide funding and clinical drug supply for the STOP-COVID19 (Superiority Trial of Protease inhibition in COVID-19) trial.
Trials will begin this week with 300 volunteers from 10 hospitals across the UK. Half the COVID-19 volunteer patients will receive brensocatib in addition to standard hospital care while the other half will receive a placebo.
The British Lung Foundation professor of respiratory research at Dundee University has been working tirelessly both on the frontline with patients and in the laboratories in the battle against COVID-19.
Prof Chalmers has been able to see firsthand the effect the disease has on patients in his role as a respiratory consultant at Ninewells Hospital.
He says he has been “so frustrated” to not be able to treat patients with medication and prevent them going to intensive care.
Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) is the “most feared” stage of COVID-19 symptoms when the disease causes widespread inflammation of the lungs.
It is at this stage patients can require ventilation. But Prof Chalmers and his team think brensocatib might block the inflammation response in the lungs.
Trials conducted to date have shown brensocatib reduces inflammation in the lungs of people with underlying lung conditions. Prof Chalmers hopes the medicine will have a similarly beneficial effect in those suffering from COVID-19.
It is also hoped the treatment will result in patients spending fewer days dependent on oxygen and shorter periods of time in hospital, reducing the burden on the NHS and global health care systems.
Prof Chalmers told the Perthshire Advertiser: “It’s really exciting.
“What everyone has been looking for is therapy to stop the need for ventilation because that’s what’s overwhelming the intensive care units. It will protect patients from the worst effects.”
In a university statement, he said: “High rates of patients requiring ventilation and overwhelming intensive care unit capacity has been a major cause of excess deaths around the world and we hope that brensocatib can put a brake on the devastation this disease causes, to literally stop COVID-19 when it begins attacking the lungs.
“The medical community has never faced a more urgent need for treatment than the unprecedented situation we face today with COVID-19. Our researchers at the University of Dundee have been studying this kind of lung inflammation for more than 10 years and so are in the perfect position to rapidly intervene in patients to try to prevent the worst outcomes of COVID-19.”