The Swiss pharmaceutical group Roche announced Thursday a partnership with the American biopharmaceutical company Atea Pharmaceuticals to develop an oral treatment, currently under study, against Covid-19.
The agreement is for the development and commercialization of a treatment called AT-527 that could become the "first oral antiviral drug" to treat patients "out of hospital," Roche said in a statement.
This investigational drug is currently the subject of phase II clinical trials, which corresponds to the intermediate phase of clinical studies, in patients of patients hospitalized with a moderate form of Covid-19.
A phase III clinical study should begin in the first quarter of 2021 to assess its potential use in patients outside the hospital, said the Swiss group.
This agreement with the Boston-based biopharmaceutical company provides that if successful and once approved by health authorities, the treatment will be distributed in the United States by Atea Pharmaceuticals and in the rest of the world by Roche.
The Swiss group did not give the financial details of this partnership.
