New advances in the fight against Covid-19. On Wednesday, according to an American study published in the journal NEJM, a single injection antiviral treatment against Covid-19 halved the risk of hospitalization in the event of an infection during clinical trials. According to the authors of the study, including Jeffrey Glenn, professor of immunology at Stanford University, these successful clinical trials could lead to a new drug in the fight against the coronavirus.
The treatment in question uses interferons, crucial proteins in the immune response. They are secreted in the presence of a virus, and attach themselves to the receptors of certain cells, thus triggering “an innate antiviral defense mechanism” (distinct from antibodies), explained Jeffrey Glenn. There are several types of interferons, including those called lambdas. Their particularity is that they attach themselves in particular to the cells of the lungs – precisely where Covid-19 is rife.
Waiting for the United States Medicines Agency
The treatment consists of an injection of a synthetic version of lambda interferons, within 7 days after the appearance of the first symptoms of Covid-19. It was tested in a clinical trial on more than 1,900 adults infected with Covid, between June 2021 and February 2022, in Brazil and Canada. Some 85% of patients were vaccinated.
Of the 931 people who received the treatment, 25 were hospitalized, compared to 57 of the 1,018 people who received a placebo, a reduction of 51%, according to the study. The results are even better by isolating unvaccinated patients.
“It’s spectacular,” commented Jeffrey Glenn, who founded the company Eiger biopharmaceuticals that developed the treatment (he still owns shares in the company). According to Eiger biopharmaceuticals, which had previously published these results in a press release, the American Medicines Agency (FDA) did not respond to an emergency authorization request.