India a step closer to making key drug to treat Covid-19
- Posted By
10Pointer
- Categories
Science & Technology
- Published
5th May, 2020
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Context
- The Hyderabad based Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT) has synthesised the key starting materials (KSMs) for Remdesivir, the first step to develop the active pharmaceutical ingredient in a drug.
- Gilead Sciences has a patent on the drug but patent laws allow for the drug to be developed solely for research purposes and not for commercial manufacturing.
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What is remdesivir?
- It was manufactured in 2014 to treat for Ebola, by US-based biotechnology firm Gilead Sciences.
- It has since been used to treat for MERS and SERS, both caused by members of the coronavirus family. This was, however, not with much success.
- Current research is looking at whether the drug’s antiviral properties work against SARS-CoV2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease.
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Why does remdesivir hold promise?
- SARS-CoV2 replicates itself inside the human cell with the help of an enzyme called RdRp.
- When remdesivir is injected intravenously, it inhibits this enzyme and effectively blocks replication of the coronavirus.
- The Journal of Biological Chemistry published a study on April 13 concluding that indeed, the “drug is able to inhibit the virus” and prevent its further spread in human cells.
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How does replication take place?
- Once the virus enters the human cell, it releases its genetic material, which is then copied using the body’s existing mechanism.
- At every stage of infection, various human proteins, virus proteins, and their interactions come into play.
- At the replication stage, the key viral protein at play is an enzyme called RdRp (an enzyme is a kind of protein that speeds up chemical reactions within a cell).
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Who all are studying it?
- There are six major trials or studies under way for remdesivir.
- It is one of the lines of treatment being investigated under the Solidarity trials under the aegis of the World Health Organization (WHO).
- Other investigations include Gilead’s own SIMPLE study, the US NIAID’s trials, the French institute Inserm’s DisCoVeRy study, and two clinical trials in China.
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What benefits have been found so far?
- Initial trial results made public by NIAID found that mortality rate was 8 per cent in COVID-19 patients administered remdesivir, as opposed to 11.6 per cent in another arm of patients not given this drug.
- Recovery time improved from 15 to 11 days. The full trial results are yet to be published.
- The data shows that remdesivir has a clear cut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recover.
- Although a 31 per cent improvement does not seem like a knockout 100 per cent, it is a very important proof of concept.
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How much of it is available?
- Since January, investments have been made to ramp up production and establish a supply chain. Until January there was an inventory to treat 5,000 patients on a 10-day course. By March end, it was scaled up to 30,000 patients.
- Gilead has for now stopped meeting individual requests for supply under its Compassionate Use programme, except for pregnant women and children with severe infection.
- Gilead spokesperson said India is not on its Compassionate Use programme for the drug.
- “India is part of the large global study designed by the WHO — the Solidarity trial.
