In the dire face of the COVID-19 pandemic, many biotech companies took flight and immediately went into development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. Over time some of these companies have moved faster through clinical trials and have secured government sponsorships to help bring the vaccines faster to market. As a result, the US currently has several vaccines in phase III trials. Of these vaccines, many are of a new class: mRNA vaccines. By encoding different viral proteins in mRNA, the host can transcribe and produce the protein which the body’s immune system can use to prepare to fight the virus by …
The Current State of SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Trials for COVID-19
This week I wanted to discuss the exciting and quickly evolving landscape of SARS-CoV-2 antibody trials for treating COVID-19. As always, this information is constantly changing and reflects the status of trials at the timing of writing. Antibody therapy is an extremely promising horizon in the COVID-19 pandemic. By supplementing patients with antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2, the therapy works by augmenting and supporting the immune system by helping to “mark” the virus. These antibodies can also single-handedly neutralize the virus. However, creating antibodies specific to a new …
Treatment of Sedation, Hypertension, Secondary Infection, and Coagulopathy in Severe COVID-19
In the past week the NIH has announced a number of new COVID-19 clinical trials. The first trial is ACTT-3. This trial builds upon the first Remdesivir trial (ACTT-1) and will test the combination of Remdesivir with Interferon-beta-1a which has pleiotropic effects on the immune system. In addition, two antibody trials, ACTIV-2 and ACTIV-3, were announced by the NIH . These trials will test Eli Lily’s new antibody therapy LY-CoV555 in non-hospitalized and hospitalized patients respectively. Interestingly, the ACTIV-2 trial hopes to administer antibody therapy early in mild and moderate patients …