Although would-be COVID-19 therapies like the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and the failed Ebola drug remdesivir have drummed up excitement as potentially life-saving treatments, a comprehensive review of available data finds that it’s still too early to tell. The review, published in JAMA on April 13, 2020, summarizes what’s currently known about medical therapies used to treat COVID-19, concluding that “no therapies have been shown effective to date.”
It Could Take Multiple Vaccines to Cure COVID-19
“We’re all hoping and we believe the world is going to need more than one vaccine as part of the solution,” Walmsley said on a Tuesday conference call with reporters. Her comments followed the unveiling of GlaxoSmithKline’s unprecedented partnership with fellow vaccine giant Sanofi, under which the companies hope to be ready to launch a vaccine next year. Dozens of biopharma companies, academic researchers and nonprofits have committed resources to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, which has spread worldwide and caused 2 million infections.
AstraZeneca to Test Blood Cancer Drug Calquence
Add another drugmaker to the list of those repurposing existing meds for COVID-19. AstraZeneca is now trying to turn a blood cancer drug against dangerous immune complications in seriously ill patients. In what’s been labeled the fastest launch of a clinical trial in the history of AstraZeneca, the British pharma will start testing Calquence to examine its effects on the potentially lethal immune overreaction storm associated with COVID-19 infection. The drug is currently approved in the U.S. for mantle cell lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.