The search for effective treatments
With a Covid-19 vaccine unlikely for at least a year, scientists around the world are conducting some 300 clinical trials into existing or experimental treatments that might help patients infected with the coronavirus. Analysts said last week that they saw “a ray of hope” in early results from a small study into remdesivir, an antiviral that California-based Gilead Sciences developed to battle Ebola. Doctors observed improvement in 36 of 53 patients with severe Covid-19 cases who received the drug. Other teams of researchers are studying immune system–boosting antibody treatments, including transfusions of blood plasma from recovered patients (see Health & Science).
Remdesivir has proved effective against other deadly coronaviruses in animal studies, said Hal Dardick in the Chicago Tribune. It’s thought to work by inhibiting a virus’s ability to replicate in high numbers, and in humans might prevent Covid-19 from overwhelming and devastating the lungs. But tests have a long way to go, and some scientists believe the drug might “be more effective on patients whose disease is less serious.”
President Trump has repeatedly pushed chloroquine as a panacea, said Michael Hiltzik in the Los Angeles Times, but the latest data on the anti-malarial drug “haven’t been encouraging.” Some hospitals that were using chloroquine as a routine first-line treatment have dropped it, because of a lack of proof that it has any positive effect “and growing evidence of harm.” Indeed, one Brazilian study into chloroquine and Covid-19 was ended “when several patients subjected to high doses of the drug began to show heart irregularities.”
It’s possible we may never find “a miracle drug,” said Spencer Bokat-Lindell in The New York Times. Of the 200 or so viruses that are “known to infect humans, only about 10 have approved treatments.” Our best near-term hope might be antibody treatments, which give our bodies a fighting chance. A number of biotech companies are now developing monoclonal antibodies—some derived from genetically engineered mice—that could enter trials this summer. “If everything goes perfectly, they might be ready for limited use in the fall.”