The corona virus continues to make headlines worldwide. Many experts are now using the malaria drug chloroquine as a possible remedy. Bayer now had 600,000 tablets transported to Germany.
- The corona virus * continues to spread.
- Meanwhile, you're looking for a drug .
- Numerous experts are now placing hopes in the malaria drug chloroquine .
Update from April 3, 12:59 p.m .: The German pharmaceutical company Bayer continues to use the active ingredient chloroquine in the fight against the corona virus . The group has now shipped a total of 600,000 tablets of the malaria drug Resochin , which contains chloroquine, to Germany and stores them safely there. The Bild newspaper first reported about it.
Bayer now produces the drug “exclusively for the common good” and “passed it on to governments free of charge in times of crisis,” CEO Werner Baumann told the newspaper. Baumann also told the n-tv channel on Saturday that existing medication was the "greatest hope" . His reasoning: Medicines that still had to be developed would not be available on time and not in sufficient quantities.
Coronavirus: Bayer plans to continue producing the drug Resochin if it works
Resochin, however, is immediately available. "And we will do everything we can to produce this medication in sufficient quantities if it should actually be effective," Baumann announced at n-tv .
Resochin is the Bayer trade name for the active ingredient chloroquine. The drug for malaria prophylaxis, which was developed in the 1930s, has been under discussion for a few weeks now, after tests on cell cultures showed an inhibition of the multiplication of the novel coronavirus .
Update from April 2, 7.30 p.m .: Health Minister Jens Spahn believes in the fight against the coronavirus * in the malaria drug Resochin from the pharmaceutical company Bayer. The agent is said to reduce the viral load of patients in the case of more severe disease courses.
Coronavirus: Jens Spahn comments on the malaria drug Resochin
"There are first indications that certain medications seem to help," Spahn told BILD Live . However, the drug must now be tested for side effects . In Germany, "a number of studies are now being carried out, including with this old malaria remedy that was used for malaria prophylaxis".
An effective drug against Covid-19 * is more likely to come onto the market than a vaccine. Spahn announced that from his point of view this would " be the case much earlier ".
Update from April 2, 2020, 10:39 am: The pharmaceutical and chemical company Bayer wants to create production options for the active ingredient chloroquine in Europe to fight the lung disease Covid-19 . Bayer CEO Werner Baumann announced on Thursday in an interview with the Handelsblatt that production facilities in Europe should also be adapted for the manufacture of the drug resochin with the active ingredient chloroquine.
Coronavirus: Bayer plans to make chloroquine available free of charge in the Covid 19 crisis
So far, the funds that Bayer wants to donate to governments free of charge in the corona crisis have only been produced at one location in Pakistan . The drug for malaria prophylaxis , which was developed in the 1930s, has been under discussion as a possible active ingredient against Covid-19 for several weeks. The reason for this is that tests on cell cultures had shown an inhibition of the multiplication of the novel corona virus. "There are indications that Resochin reduces the viral load in the laboratory and in initial clinical tests," Baumann told the Handelsblatt. But further clinical studies are needed to clarify the relationship between risk and benefit. These studies would now be launched by the World Health Organization (WHO), among others.
After US President Donald Trump promoted the use of chloroquine in the treatment of people suffering from Covid 19, the malaria drug had also come into focus outside of specialist circles. However, experts are careful about possible side effects and warn against self-medication. In France, for example, the treatment of people suffering from Covid 19 is only permitted if the course is severe and after consultation with doctors.
Coronavirus: Swiss pharmaceutical company has hopes in malaria drug
Update of March 29, 2020, 10:55 p.m .: Again, there is news in the search for a cure for the coronavirus that at least gives hope: The Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis has high expectations of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine . "Preclinical studies with animals and initial data from clinical studies show that it kills the coronavirus," Novartis boss Vasant Narasimhan told the SonntagsZeitung. Patients are currently being sought for clinical studies in Europe and the USA. In cooperation with the supervisory authorities in the USA and Switzerland, an approval by express procedure would also be examined .
At the same time, other drugs that have already been developed would be examined to determine whether they could be used against Covid-19 . The cancer drug Jakavi is "very promising", said the Novartis boss. In addition, the multiple sclerosis drug Gilenya and Ilaris, a drug for febrile syndromes, would be examined for possible use.
Update of March 18, 2020, 6:29 pm: The Tübingen Institute for Tropical Medicine wants to start testing a possible medication for the coronavirus next week (see below).
The WHO has also launched a large-scale study . Five drugs are to be tested for their effectiveness against the coronavirus. Hospitals in nine countries are already participating in the study. Germany has not been mentioned so far. The first tests for a vaccine had already started, reports the dpa.
Read also: German researchers with a breakthrough - deciphering the decisive enzyme for virus replication.
Coronavirus: Tübingen doctors want to test drug against CoVid-19
Update of March 18, 2020, 12:54 p.m .: Apparently there is further progress in the search for a drug against the coronavirus : The Tübingen Institute for Tropical Medicine wants to test the drug chloroquine in the fight against corona diseases. A study on humans is scheduled to start as early as next week, institute director Peter Kremser said on Wednesday. The SWR had previously reported.
Coronavirus: Chloroquine is currently on the market as an active ingredient against malaria
According to Kremsner, chloroquine has long been on the market as an active ingredient against malaria . But it helps against many viruses - also against Sars-CoV-2 . At least this was shown by tests in a test tube. According to Kremsner, very many CoVid-19 patients have been treated with chloroquine in Italy and China . However, it is unclear whether the treatment was successful because the patients had received chloroquine in very high doses and together with many other medications. " It may also be that it doesn't work or even harm, " warned Kremsner.
With chloroquine, the Tübingen tropical doctors now want to treat a test group suffering from CoVid-19 and administer placebo to a control group. The application for the study should be submitted to the Tübingen Ethics Committee today.
Basically, drugs are only ever approved for certain diseases. The Bonn Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArm) is responsible for this. Deviating from this, doctors can only give medication in trials to individual patients in exceptional cases.
Update of March 13, 2020, 9.55 a.m .: The search for an active ingredient against the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 continues at full speed. While the number of infected has now risen to 2,750 , the NDR reports on a new active ingredient from Lübeck that is supposed to help against the virus.
Coronavirus: Researchers from Lübeck develop active ingredient
According to this, a research team led by Professor Rolf Hilgenfeld from the University of Lübeck developed an active ingredient. He and his team currently have an incredible workload. "We spend up to 18 hours here in the laboratory," the head of the Institute of Biochemistry told the Lübecker Nachrichten.
As reported by NDR.de, the active substance has already been tested in human lung cells infected with the SARS-CoV-2 . According to Professor Hilgenfeld, the active ingredient is active. According to his approach, he is supposed to render the viruses in the lungs harmless. The active ingredient is said to paralyze the enzyme that the virus needs to enter the lungs.
Coronavirus: a long way from drug to drug
The team around Hilgenfeld will soon be presenting the results in the renowned scientific journal "Science". So far, there is no mention of a drug that can be used. Hilgenfeld says that there is still a long way to go to make the drug effective in the laboratory.
Animal experiments on mice would have to be carried out, and the active ingredient would also have to be tested on both healthy and sick volunteers. Side effects tests should also be performed. "It may take some time before the right medication is in the pharmacy," said the researcher, but is still optimistic that it could go faster in this case. The background to this is 140 million that the household has made available to advance research.
However, time could make a huge spanner in the works. One of the main problems with the development of active substances is that there can be no more sick people when the drug is ready for a test phase.
In China, where the coronavirus first broke out, the peak of the spread appears to have passed. According to official statistics, China has reported significantly fewer new infections and deaths in recent days.
Coronavirus: Potential drug found - it could help in the short term: "Have found that ..."
Munich - The corona virus continues to spread. The situation in Italy after the outbreak of the corona virus is serious. There are now almost 6,000 infected and over 230 dead (as of March 8, 2020). In Italy, travel is now banned for almost 16 million people.
The situation is also worsening in Germany because of the Sars-CoV-2 * coronavirus. German scientists are now on the track of a drug against the virus.
Coronavirus: TMPRSS2 Enzyme The Key To A Drug?
As the German Primate Center (DZP) reports on its website, tests were carried out in collaboration with colleagues from the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin to find out how the SARS-CoV-2 * coronavirus penetrates cells. Coronaviruses therefore require a protease or an enzyme called TMPRSS2 to penetrate the lung cells .
"Our results show that SARS-CoV-2 needs the protease TMPRSS2 present in the human body to penetrate into the host cell," said Stefan Pöhlmann , head of the infection biology department at the DZP. This provided a starting point for fighting the virus, Pöhlmann continued.
"An existing drug that inhibits this protease could therefore be a promising treatment option," said the DZP.
Coronavirus drug: "Tests suggest that ..."
The enzyme TMPRSS2 was discovered by the drug Camostat Mesilate , which was approved in Japan and was originally used for inflammation of the pancreas. "We tested SARS-CoV-2 from a patient and found that Camostat Mesilate blocks the entry of the virus into lung cells," says infection biologist Dr. Markus Hoffmann quoted on the DZP website.
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Hoffmann also confirmed to the picture (article behind payment barrier) that the results would suggest that Camostat Mesilate could also protect against the disease COVID-19. "This should be investigated in the context of clinical studies." However, how long this will take remains unclear. So far, there is only talk of a potential drug.
So far, it has also looked rather bad for a vaccine for the coronavirus. As Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute, said that a vaccine should not be used before 2021.
Also worth reading: How dangerous previous illnesses are in connection with the corona virus, explains a Munich doctor at tz.de *.
Corona virus: The isolation of cities like Milan and Venice shows how controversial the situation is now. Commentary from Merkur editor-in-chief Georg Anastasiadis. The corona virus has arrived in Baden-Württemberg. The RKI added the Alsace region adjacent to Baden-Württemberg as a risk area.
The corona virus keeps the whole world in suspense. Italy is in a state of emergency. But in the city of Siena, people defy the virus in a beautiful way.
mbr, cia, dpa, AFP
* Merkur.de and tz.de are part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
List of rubric lists: © AFP / GERARD JULIEN
