Roche Sending Arthritis Drug to Coronavirus Doctors
March 24 2020 - 02:19PM
Dow Jones News
By Brianna Abbott
Roche Holding AG is supplying its arthritis drug Actemra to
doctors on the front lines fighting the new coronavirus, Alexander
Hardy, chief executive of Roche's Genentech business, said during
The Wall Street Journal Health Forum held remotely by
videoconference on Tuesday.
Actemra isn't approved to treat the new coronavirus. Yet there
are signs it might work, and Roche has said it would start testing
the drug to see if it works against the virus.
The Actemra coronavirus trial will start enrolling patients in
early April and will collect data in real-time. "What we're really
missing is a clear level of evidence to really inform what the
correct role of Actemra is in treating the disease in its most
serious stage," Mr. Hardy said.
While the trial evaluates whether the drug works against the
virus, the company provided 10,000 vials of the drug to the
Strategic National Stockpile so that U.S. doctors can start using
the drug, Mr. Hardy said.
Companies and health authorities across the globe are racing to
discern whether any drugs on the market might also work to fight
off Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel virus.
Researchers and companies are trying not to rush into widespread
use of any particular drug without first making sure the benefits
outweigh any potential risks. Yet the urgency of the coronavirus
threat has prompted some doctors to repurpose medicines.
The push to evaluate and supply Actemra follows recent reports
from China that point to the potential benefit of the drug, which
had been used on roughly 400 patients in China and more in Italy,
Mr. Hardy said.
A study of the drug on Covid-19 recently began at the First
People's Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China,
according to a Genentech spokesperson.
Anecdotal evidence from New York also supports its use, Mr.
Hardy said.
The arthritis drug works to suppress the overreaction of a
person's immune system by blocking proteins called interleukin-6,
or IL-6, which trigger the body's inflammatory response.
Researchers believe that the overreaction of the immune system
might be causing the most severe damage to Covid-19 patients and
that drugs that put the brakes on this response might ease some of
the most severe symptoms.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and partner Sanofi SA are testing
another rheumatoid arthritis therapy, named Kevzara, to see if it
fights the coronavirus.
Write to Brianna Abbott at brianna.abbott@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 24, 2020 14:04 ET (18:04 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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