Pharming Group, a pharmaceutical company from Leiden, is going to test more extensively a drug that may work against serious symptoms due to a contamination with the coronavirus (COVID-19). Pharming called the results of an initial five-patient trial “encouraging” on Tuesday.
It concerns the drug Ruconest that is already sold in Europe and the US. It is used in the treatment of complaints that are somewhat similar to complications that can arise after infection with the coronavirus.
“It is used for sudden swelling caused by leakage of barrels due to lack of a certain substance,” said a spokesperson. “This creates an acute inflammatory attack, which causes swelling that is very painful and can be fatal.” The agent Ruconest works against this.
“This makes the immune system work very hard.” That leakage of vessels is similar to what happens in the lungs in COVID-19 patients. In a small trial with five corona patients with severe pneumonia, the drug had a positive effect fairly quickly in four out of five. Later that also happened to the fifth person.
“It involved four men and a woman between the ages of 53 and 85,” said Pharming. This was an uncontrolled study. The drug will now be tested in Switzerland on up to 150 COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms who need to be hospitalized as a result.
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