Comments
United Kingdom-based drug development company Synairgen Plc today that said its wholly-owned inhaled formulation of interferon beta dubbed SNG001 has shown positive results for hospitalised Covid-19 patients in clinical trials.
The drug has been developed based on research at the University of Southampton. A double-blind placebo trial of SNG001 was conducted on 101 patients from nine specialist hospital sites in the UK from March 30 to May 27.
“Patient groups were evenly matched in terms of average age (56.5 years for placebo and 57.8 years for SNG001), comorbidities and average duration of Covid-19 symptoms prior to enrolment (9.8 days for placebo and 9.6 days for SNG001),” the company said in its official release.
“We are all delighted with the trial results announced today, which showed that SNG001 greatly reduced the number of hospitalised Covid-19 patients who progressed from ‘requiring oxygen’ to ‘requiring ventilation’,” said Richard Marsden, CEO of Synairgen.
“It also showed that patients who received SNG001 were at least twice as likely to recover to the point where their everyday activities were not compromised through having been infected by SARS-CoV-2. In addition, SNG001 has significantly reduced breathlessness, one of the main symptoms of severe Covid-19. This assessment of SNG001 in Covid-19 patients could signal a major breakthrough in the treatment of hospitalised Covid-19 patients. Our efforts are now focused on working with the regulators and other key groups to progress this potential Covid-19 treatment as rapidly as possible,” he added.
According to the key findings of the trial, patients who received SNG001 had a 79 per cent lower risk of developing severe disease symptoms as compared to patients who had been given a placebo.
The company will conduct further analysis of the drug.
“The efficacy analyses indicate there is no evidence of an association between the SNG001 positive treatment effects and prior duration of Covid-19 symptoms. Further analysis will be conducted over the coming weeks and reported in due course,” it said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.