Australian university starting human trials on possible coronavirus cure

[Elderberry]

American Military News by  Ryan Morgan  March 18, 2020

Scientists in Australia have been given permission to proceed with human trials for two existing drugs that may also act as a cure for the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, COVID-19.

On Wednesday, the University of Queensland Australia announced it will begin its initial human trials to test two potential coronavirus treatments using existing drugs used for HIV and malaria patients.

The HIV drug is known as remdesivir, and the malaria drug is known as chloroquine, Asia Times reported.

Anecdotal evidence suggests both drugs were used as treatments in China, where the coronavirus outbreak first appeared, however, China has not released trial data to confirm these findings.

More: https://americanmilitarynews.com/2020/03/australian-university-starting-human-trials-on-possible-coronavirus-cure/

[Smokin Joe]

Good. The Aussie data with chloroquine may bolster the French information, and if so, may be the or at least a treatment of choice.

Maybe then America can wipe its ass again.

[PeteS in CA]

An NIH clinical trial of Remdesivir begun: February 25, 2020, at University of Nebraska Medical Center, https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-clinical-trial-remdesivir-treat-covid-19-begins

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/did-experimental-drug-help-us-coronavirus-patient]https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/did-experimental-drug-help-us-coronavirus-patient

Did an experimental drug help a U.S. coronavirus patient?
By Jon Cohen  Mar. 13, 2020, 1:30 PM

The difficulty the medical center faced acquiring a test for its patient received widespread media scrutiny, but her fate largely escaped notice: After her condition declined, the UC Davis doctors secured what’s known as compassionate use permission from the Food and Drug Administration to test an experimental drug on their patient outside of a clinical trial. The drug, remdesivir made by Gilead Sciences, is given by an intravenous drip. Several randomized, placebo controlled trials of remdesivir for COV-19 are now underway in China and the United States and everyone is looking for quick hints on whether the drug works—a new preprint out today on the drug’s use in three COVID-19 patients is raising questions about its ultimate value.

Remdesivir cripples an enzyme called RNA polymerase that is used by many viruses to copy themselves; it does not specifically target SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.  But it worked well in test tube and animal studies of human coronaviruses, cousins of SARS-CoV-2 called severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome, that cause similar respiratory conditions. ...

George Thompson, an infectious disease specialist at the medical center, was on the team that cared for the California patient and spoke to ScienceInsider about the case. This interview has been edited for clarity and length; additional information added by ScienceInsider is in brackets.

Q:  When did the patient start on remdesivir?

A: From diagnosis to therapy, about 36 hours, which is very short for emergency approval of an investigational drug.

Q: How sick was the patient?

A: We thought they were going to pass away.
...
Q: Has the patient been discharged?

A: To protect privacy, let’s just say they are doing well.

To date, the article linked above and now at https://www.techtimes.com/articles/248069/20200316/coronavirus-cure-update-a-second-look-at-an-experimental-drug-could-it-save-us-from-the-coronavirus-pandemic.htm are the only US sources I've found for this story. Two UK papers and a source from Oz have also covered it, based on the Science magazine article.

While not one of the larger UC schools, UC Davis has been around a lot longer than I have, is an hour or less drive from Sacramento, and a couple hours drive from SF. It's not in an obscure corner of CA. My, entirely serious, opinion is that US MSM have spiked this story because it's inconsistent with their Trump is doing nothing narrative.

[TomSea]

My opinion is there are about 2 hopeful vaccine stories daily. I guess, this wasn't posted already but there are so many of these.

This is why I think @PeteS in CA  's red lettered data base is actually pretty important. To try to keep up with these.

I was reading that last night, are the "vaccine stories" proper to post there? For the time line and all of that?

[PeteS in CA]

My opinion is there are about 2 hopeful vaccine stories daily. I guess, this wasn't posted already but there are so many of these.

This is why I think @PeteS in CA  's red lettered data base is actually pretty important. To try to keep up with these.

I was reading that last night, are the "vaccine stories" proper to post there? For the time line and all of that?

The over-all good news picture is that there are multiple treatments (for sick people) and vaccines (Infection prevention) in testing stages. Several of the potential treatments are drugs already used for other diseases, which means safety testing has already been done. My semi-wild guess is that a treatment could be made widely available in the September-October time frame. And if the quality of existing test protocols and data for Chloroquine is good enough, maybe even by May-June.

[Smokin Joe]

The over-all good news picture is that there are multiple treatments (for sick people) and vaccines (Infection prevention) in testing stages. Several of the potential treatments are drugs already used for other diseases, which means safety testing has already been done. My semi-wild guess is that a treatment could be made widely available in the September-October time frame. And if the quality of existing test protocols and data for Chloroquine is good enough, maybe even by May-June.

If the chloroquine tests prove efficacy, you would think this longstanding antimalarial drug would be available, and that quantity would be less a problem. It has been around in pill form as a prophylactic medication against/treatment for Malaria for a long time. One pill a week. Which cuts health care provider exposure, as the other prime candidate requires intravenous drip.