A British-based pharmaceutical giant has revealed it would start a clinical trial to assess the potential of a blood cancer drug to treat severely ill coronavirus patients after it offered promise in the United States (US).
With anecdotal evidence of Calquence showing improvement in the condition of ventilated and intensive care patients, AstraZeneca plans to use the drug in a large clinical trial of 400 patients.
It was given to a small number of Covid-19 patients at the Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington.
The pharmaceutical firm said, “clinical benefit was observed in select patients with advanced lung disease”.
The contagion can lead to death when it causes an aggressive immune response that inflames and scars the lungs, making it difficult to breathe.
Calquence, generic name acalabrutinib, is known as a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor which block the BTK protein which triggers immune responses. By suppressing the exaggerated defense mechanism, it may prevent the virus from damaging the lungs.
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“The science of acalabrutinib and, I think more than that, of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase situation, is pretty strong. The mechanism is very clear,” Jose Baselga, head of oncology research and development said.
“The cytokine storm [immune response] that occurs in the pneumonia of these patients is heavily mediated by Bruton’s kinase and, unlike approaches that are trying to deal with one cytokine at a time, I see this more as a truncal intervention, in which you are basically hitting the central key pathway that regulates many of these cytokines so the rationale is incredibly strong… it gives us the opportunity to address the whole problem.”
Mr Basegla said that AstraZeneca received early data about coronavirus patients recovering after taking the drugs last week, adding the firm are still working out how to give Calquence, which comes in pill form, to patients who are on ventilators and therefore heavily sedated.
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Calquence has already been given to patients in this way, the firm claims.
