The COVID-19 outbreak is proving to be a formidable foe, yet amid the horror it has brought, rays of hope are coming from the medical community. Researchers from the far corners of the world are fervently working to develop safe, effective treatments, as well as a vaccine. Although a silver bullet for the disease doesn’t exist, the developed solutions will likely help stop transmission, reduce symptoms, and lower the death rate.
While the country awaits solutions, the use of telemedicine for an array of medical care, including wound care, is expected to rise. The recent stimulus package Congress passed will make it more accessible to Americans. Telemedicine presents a way to provide treatment without increasing the risk of the infection to health care workers and patients.
All Hands on Deck Approach
In a press release, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that they are playing a key role in the administration’s all-hands-on-deck approach to develop life-saving treatment for COVID-19.
The country’s scramble to provide solutions involves public, private, and academic sectors. Because treatment development is normally very time consuming, the FDA is taking steps to accelerate the process with the formation of the Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program. The program will use every tool at its disposal to bring new therapies to those who need them as quickly as possible.
To hasten life-saving discoveries, the FDA is using two main strategies: cutting red tape and assigning more staff to review requests from scientists working on therapies. The agency is collaborating with federal partners, educational institutions, and industry players to expedite the emergence of solutions. In addition to speeding the process involved in conducting and evaluating clinical studies, the FDA is facilitating the collection of real-world data of treatment outcomes to complement the studies.
Treatment Options Under Investigation
The desperate need for COVID-19 treatment is fueling the mad rush of pharmaceutical companies to develop either new medicines or new uses for old medicines. Typically, the process to make a new drug takes 10 years or more. Because a drug needs to be both safe and effective, only a small percentage makes it to clinical trials. Many medications either don’t work as well as expected, or their safety issues outweigh their benefits. Below is a summary of potential medications under investigation:
Antiviral Drugs: Rigorous clinical trials are exploring the effectiveness of existing antiviral agents, such as the antimalarial drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, but they will take time. In the meantime, many hospitals are already using them to treat patients with COVID-19. Aside from the antimalarial medications, a flu drug called favipiravir has shown some promise.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Drugs: Medications used to treat rheumatoid arthritis work by preventing the immune system from overreacting. A small study examining the effects of one such drug, Actemra, on COVID-19 patients showed it reduced fever and the need for oxygen. At this time, two pharmaceutical companies are studying a similar drug.
Convalescent Plasma: This treatment is an old concept that has been used with success in other epidemics. It involves giving blood plasma to ill patients from people who have contracted the virus but recovered. A pilot Chinese study, yet to be peer-reviewed, tested this treatment on 10 severely ill COVID-19 patients. In response, clinical symptoms improved, and no serious side effects were observed. The researchers concluded that the therapy needs further investigation in larger clinical trials.
Remdesivir: A medication previously developed to treat other viruses, including the Ebola virus, is remdesivir. It works by suppressing the ability of a virus to reproduce and spread to other parts of the body. Preliminary testing shows it protects cells in a laboratory dish against the virus that causes COVID-19. Further studies are underway to confirm this effect.
High-Dose Vitamin C: Some severely ill patients with COVID-19 have been treated with high doses of vitamin C intravenously. It isn’t a standard part of a treatment regimen, and no convincing scientific evidence yet proves its efficacy. Two studies assessing its value for other severe infections had some positive results, and a Chinese study is currently testing it on COVID-19 patients.
Rush for Vaccine Development
Vaccines work by training the immune system to identify and fight disease-causing microbes, in this case, the virus that causes COVID-19. When people are vaccinated, molecules from the virus called antigens are injected into their body. In response, the immune system learns to recognize them as harmful agents and produces antibodies against them. The next time the virus invades the body, the antibodies attack it before it can cause illness.
Just as scientists are racing to develop treatments, so also are they rushing to create a vaccine that would provide immunity against the virus that causes COVID-19. Twenty vaccines are currently in development. These include both new and repurposed vaccines. The research involves studying possible vaccine agents, along with investigating technologies that might enhance their effectiveness.
Vaccines generally must undergo three phases of clinical trials before approval. In a best-case scenario, experts estimate that a vaccine will be available in 12 to 18 months. On average, only one in ten experimental vaccines is approved, so the more scientists who are engaged in using various strategies for development, the greater is the likelihood that one will prove successful.
One of the most interesting areas of research on vaccines involves a substance developed by Moderna Therapeutics termed mRNA-1273. Clinical trials on humans are currently underway in Washington State, and the company may be able to put an early version on the market in the fall of 2020. If this happens, the earliest versions would be reserved for high-risk groups of people.
Even though vaccines won’t be available immediately, some treatments could start soon. Despite the absence of a silver bullet, there is reason for hope. Doctors don’t know when the worldwide effort to battle COVID-19 will produce results, but it’s probable that they’ll eventually make a considerable difference.
0 Comments