A pharmaceutical company in Lévis is working on a drug that would cure COVID-19 and its variants.
• Read also: All the developments of the pandemic
The drug developed by the company Angany is made from antibodies and is administered intravenously. The treatment would not replace vaccines, but rather be complementary to them.
«[Il permet de] treat people who start to get sick from COVID-19, that is to say people who are hospitalized at the very beginning, to avoid complications, the need for intubation ”, explains Guy Tropper, executive vice-president of medical and corporate affairs of ‘Angany.
Mr. Tropper specifies that the drug can also be used in prevention in the nursing staff, the first responders and in people who cannot receive the vaccine.
The small team of ten people produces the antibodies using plants.
“We command the cells of the plants that we use to cease their own internal biological activity and to produce proteins, specialized proteins,” says Guy Tropper.
Crucial steps are needed for development.
“This will help us to start characterizing the antiviral extracts that the plants have produced. It gives us information on the configuration of the antiviral, on its abundance and, therefore, it ultimately validates the entire purification process that we are in the process of putting in place ”, indicates Réjean Desgagnés, director of developments and procedures. , about these steps.
The pharmaceutical company could quickly launch clinical trials in humans, but to do so, Angany needs the money.
“It is outside the primary mission of our company, which targets the allergy sector. So we raise our hand. There are public authorities who may be able to decide that it is in the common public interest, ”notes Guy Tropper.
Discussions are underway, particularly with the Government of Quebec, regarding the funding of this drug, which would give a serious boost to efforts to end the pandemic.
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