In a Miami hospital they will test for the first time a drug for vertigo from half a century ago against the coronavirus

08/12/2020 - 7:00

• Clarín.com
• World

A Miami hospital will be the first to conduct human trials to determine whether a half-century-old drug used for vertigo and dizziness can "reduce hospital stays, mortality, and lung damage" for coronavirus patients. says Christopher Moreau, CEO of Canada's Algernon Pharmaceuticals.

The drug, Ifenprodil (NP-120), was identified this year by the University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) as a possible effective treatment for the new coronavirus and "may even reverse the disease," Moreau said.

This pill will begin to be supplied at Westchester General Hospital in Miami, the first in five cities in the United States to test it after approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Moreau explained.

"Ethnic diversity is very useful in human trials , especially in a Phase 3 study, which is the pre-market approval phase," the executive said.

He stressed that these data collected in multicultural Miami "will be useful to confirm that the treatment has a widespread effect on the population."

"We are hopeful that we will see a significant reduction in the mortality rate, the length of hospital stay and a reduction in lung damage caused by the infection," he said.

"We are also hopeful that the drug will reduce the serious effects of coughing, which is another factor in COVID-19 patients," said the Algernon Pharmaceuticals executive.

This Canadian company focuses on drug reuse; investigates safe and approved drugs for applications in new diseases.

Can it heal?

Moreau also said that "very promising results" have been found for Ifenprodil against H5N1 bird flu, "the world's deadliest flu , " in an independent study conducted by a group of Chinese scientists with infected mice.

He recalled that H5N1 has a mortality rate of more than 55% , while COVID-19 is 1% to 3%.

"The results were very convincing, with Ifenprodil reducing mortality by 40%, and reducing acute lung injury and inflammation in lung tissue."

In that sense, he said that "if Ifenprodil was working so well with the world's deadliest bird flu, maybe we can see a similar result in COVID-19 (which is) less deadly . "

Ifenprodil was originally developed by France's Sanofi in the early 1970s as a treatment for "intermittent claudication", a blood circulation disorder .

However, Moreau said, it ended up being approved in Japan and South Korea as a neurological drug to treat dizziness and vertigo, but "based on its mechanism of action," Algernon determined that it can also treat "serious lung diseases."

Now, the Canadian has filed new worldwide intellectual property rights for NP-120 (Ifenprodil) for the treatment of respiratory diseases and is working to develop an injectable and slow-release formula.

The executive said Algernon is in a "multi-horse race" because they are also investigating Ifenprodil for another serious lung disease called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and also chronic cough.

"So we have two phase 2 clinical trials with three disease indications," he said.

E time, key

Moreau on the other hand expressed concern about the hasty development of vaccines against COVID-19 , a disease that in the United States alone has caused the death of more than 163,000 people and infected more than 5 million.

"If they are going to develop something that will be given to billions of people, they better know what they are doing and that takes time," he stressed.

He referred to the words of Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, who described that only seven "truly new" vaccines have been developed in the last 25 years.

In addition, he said there is already a problem with people reluctant to wear masks and opined that much less will want a vaccine, especially one that has been rushed.

"Human nature is to find a quick solution that eliminates a problem, however, we may face having to accept a different approach, such as HIV , which is treated with a cocktail of drugs," he said.

He stated that while the world is working on a vaccine, we must also look for a possible therapeutic response such as Ifenprodil and others that may end up being combinatorial with other treatments.

Moreau also expressed that there is "much to learn " from the pathogen, especially about how immunity works "either in the short or long term" or if the new coronavirus will mutate like the flu.

COVID-19 showed "how unprepared we were for a pandemic, despite years of warnings from global health experts," he stressed.

PB

Source: EFE