Chennai: Two drugs companies in the United Kingdom are partnering with the universities of Birmingham and Oxford as part of a major trial to test potential therapeutics to treat patients hospitalised with Covid-19.
According to a statement, the CATALYST trial, a collaboration with University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), will test a series of new drugs, including those already in use for patients with cancer and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.
Oxford based biopharmaceutical company Izana Bioscience will provide the first of four potential treatments to be tested, it added.
It further said Namilumab is a fully human monoclonal antibody already in late-stage trials to treat rheumatoid arthritis, and an inflammatory disease called ankylosing spondylitis.
The drug targets a ‘cytokine’ called GM-CSF (granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor), which is naturally secreted by immune cells in the body but, in uncontrolled levels.
The cytokine is believed to be a key driver of the excessive and dangerous lung inflammation seen in COVID-19 patients, the university stated.