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Will corona drug from Bavaria bring the breakthrough? It is supposed to outsmart the virus - but only in months

2021-03-08T14:01:59.522Z


Vaccines are the most important weapon in the fight against corona. Medicines hardly play a role yet. But that should change soon with Bavarian help.


Vaccines are the most important weapon in the fight against corona.

Medicines hardly play a role yet.

But that should change soon with Bavarian help.

The bearer of hope is called "FYB207".

The name sounds like a test tube, but the birth of the drug is a real life story.

It begins on March 22, 2020 - six days after Prime Minister Markus Söder declared a disaster due to Corona.

Dr.

Carsten Brockmeyer is currently on the Isar cycle path, here the Freising likes to kick the stress off his soul.

"I can think well while cycling," says the CEO of Formycon AG, a biotech company based in Martinsried.

By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our new, regular Würmtal newsletter.

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Kerstin Schreyer (left) is Bavaria's Minister for Housing, Construction and Transport and is regularly out and about in her constituency.

During her visit to Formycon, she was explained how the new drug should work.

© Markus Götzfried

Many people think about God and the world while cycling.

Brockmeyer usually has molecules in his head.

During his tour of the Isar, the award-winning biologist ponders how a drug against the virus could work.

The brilliant idea comes to him somewhere between Seilerbrückl and Achering: “We need a long-acting ACE2-IgG-Fc fusion molecule!” Brockmeyer energizes what is only technical jargon for the layman.

Fight against corona: new drug is supposed to outsmart the virus

He immediately emails Johannes Buchner, a long-time companion.

And he brings Professor Ulrike Protzer on board, the chief virologist at the university hospital on the right of the Isar.

She received Buchner's call while shopping in the metro, her answer comes faster than the cash register: "Sounds exciting, I'll be there."

Less than a year later, the trio is sitting together again at the Formycon headquarters in Martinsried.

Brockmeyer has invited State Minister Kerstin Schreyer (CSU) to present the spectacular interim results of the research work.

The most important message of the scientist trio: Their common baby FYB207, the working title of the drug, works against Corona - also against the dreaded mutations.

"The drug works wonderfully with all virus variants that we currently know," explains virologist Protzer.

However, so far only "in vitro", as scientists say, under laboratory conditions.

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Here in Martinsried, Formycon has been researching since 2012 - actually on imitation products, so-called biosimilars.

© Markus Götzfried

Clinical studies are now expected to provide evidence that FYB207 also meets the high expectations in the treatment of humans - without serious side effects.

If all goes well, the product could hit the market in early 2022 and save many lives.

"The drug works with all virus variants"


"The more aggressive the virus, the better the drug works," explains Buchner.

It uses a biotechnological trick to prevent the pathogen from attacking the body's cell at all.

Every coronavirus needs a protein on the surface of the human cell in order to dock, penetrate into it and multiply in it.

In this way, a single virus can replicate over 10,000 times in a cell.

This key protein of the cell is called ACE2 and “sits increasingly on cells in the throat area and in the lungs, also on vascular and nerve cells.

Corona practically kidnaps the cell via the ACE2 protein, ”explains Brockmeyer.

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Formycon boss Carsten Brockmeyer came up with the idea for the new corona drug while cycling on the Isar.

© Markus Götzfried

To prevent this from happening, the researchers produce ACE2 in the laboratory and combine it with an antibody segment in a molecular biological manner.

This makes it possible to render the virus harmless and to destroy it with the help of the immune system.

Namely, it docks to these so-called fusion molecules.

To put it simply: the virus traps the drug, cannot reach the cell and is disposed of by the immune system.

“It is crucial that our fusion protein remains in the body and works for many hours.

We succeeded in doing this with FYB207, ”says Brockmeyer.

Corona drug: Studies on possible side effects are still lacking

A plan that also convinces the Free State.

He is funding the Formycon project with several hundred thousand euros and has promised further funding.

Minister Schreyer was impressed by the interim results - and immediately asked whether her colleagues in charge had secured sufficient doses of the drug in advance.

She wants to keep things from going like the vaccines.

Schreyer puts it diplomatically: “Not that other countries, which are acting a little more dynamically, come before us.” First, the Formycon scientists still have to tinker with the subtleties of FYB207.

Formycon AG has been researching in Martinsried in the south-west of Munich since 2012.

The Planegg district is considered to be the heart of German biotechnology.

Prime Minister Markus Söder calls the tranquil Würmtal “the Biovalley in Germany” - and responded promptly when the company asked him for research funding last year.

A lighthouse drug from Bavaria for the whole world - that would be entirely to Söder's taste.

According to its own admission, Formycon could not cope with the further development and approval process alone - although the company has grown to 130 employees in recent years and has increased sales by around 25 percent each year.

Fight against corona: vaccines do not make drugs superfluous

Before Corona, the company was focused on so-called biosimilars.

These are successor products to successful, approved biopharmaceutical drugs that are primarily used to treat severe and chronic diseases such as cancer, rheumatism or multiple sclerosis.

Patents are increasingly running out here and products with the same mode of action as the original products are coming onto the market.

Biosimilars poured twelve billion dollars into manufacturers' coffers in 2019 alone, and sales are expected to rise to 69 billion by 2025.

FYB207, the drug against the corona virus, is now to crown the portfolio of the Bavarian company.

But behind the hope there is also a question mark: won't the drug - even if it receives the hoped-for emergency approval in early 2022 - come too late?

After all, many people will be vaccinated by then.

According to Brockmeyer, no problem: "Vaccines are an important pillar in the fight against Corona," says the Formycon boss, "but the virus will still not go away." There will always be people who become infected and are in mortal danger without effective medication .

List of rubric lists: © Markus Götzfried

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-03-08

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