Sorry, had trouble getting the entire article but I think it's all here (this is in today's San Francisco Chronicle):
Two drugs studied in Bay Area could lessen coronavirus deaths, hospitalizations
Photo of J.D. Morris
J.D. Morris April 23, 2020 Updated: April 23, 2020 6:25 a.m.
A man wearing a mask walks in Alamo Square Park across from the Painted Ladies, a row of historical Victorian homes in San Francisco. Two treatments being studied in the city could show promise against the coronavirus and COVID-19, the deadly disease it causes.
An image shows monoclonal antibodies at work in the body. These manufactured immune system proteins, which are designed to attack specific targets, are used to treat cancer and other disorders. One is being tested against the coronavirus.
Two drugs being studied by Bay Area doctors for use in fighting coronavirus infections may keep more COVID-19 patients alive and out of the hospital if proved effective.
One of the drugs, colchicine, is a cheap and common anti-inflammatory treatment for gout. UCSF is using it in a clinical trial of COVID-19 patients that is occurring entirely remotely. Patients receive colchicine or placebo pills in the mail and do not need to be seen in person.
The other drug, leronlimab, is a newer experimental treatment that was originally developed for use on HIV patients before being tested more recently on some people with breast cancer. Leronlimab is a monoclonal antibody made by the Vancouver, Wash., company CytoDyn, whose chief science officer is based in San Francisco.
One of the patients who has already been treated with the drug is Samantha Mottet, a 55-year-old resident of Seal Beach (Orange County). She fell ill, primarily with exhaustion, shortly after her husband returned from a trip to the East Coast last month. She was eventually admitted to the hospital at UCLA, where she received an organ transplant 14 years ago, after testing positive for the coronavirus.
Her condition worsened in the hospital and she was placed on a ventilator. The first round of drugs Mottet was given did not improve her COVID-19 symptoms. Then, with her husband’s approval, her doctor administered leronlimab.
Mottet told The Chronicle that the drug was her “last hope” — and it worked. Within 24 hours, she needed less oxygen, and she was taken off the ventilator a few days later. She said she has experienced no side effects.
“All I know is I’m just thankful to be here today,” Mottet said. “This drug worked for me and I hope it works for other people.”
Dr. Warner Greene, a senior investigator with the Gladstone Institutes who has been studying the coronavirus, said leronlimab appears to be “more surgical in its effect.” Colchicine, though well known and widely used, “seems like a blunt instrument for the job at hand,” he said.
Greene said leronlimab is a more targeted kind of drug that would be “interfering with a fundamental part of the process that is causing the trouble.”
“Colchicine may be doing that, but it’s having its effect all over the body,” he said. “That said, if it blocked the cytokine storm ... that would be wonderful.”
Doctors studying leronlimab think it could be broadly effective. While CytoDyn would like to use the drug on ICU patients, its greatest benefit will likely be on patients in earlier stages of COVID-19 — hospitalized people with symptoms more severe than mild shortness of breath, said Lalezari of CytoDyn.
Dr. Bruce Patterson, CEO of the San Carlos single-cell diagnostic company IncellDx that has been working on leronlimab, said the drug is exciting because it appears to impact some of the most essential elements of the viral disease, “not just a piece of what COVID is all about.”
“This is the ideal drug to meet everybody’s needs about reopening the country,” Patterson said. “If we had something that we could say we can treat the severe (patients) and we can keep the mild-to-moderates from getting severe, then it becomes the flu. Then we’re not so scared of people getting infected.”
J.D. Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris
https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/Tw...219896.php
Two drugs studied in Bay Area could lessen coronavirus deaths, hospitalizations
Photo of J.D. Morris
J.D. Morris April 23, 2020 Updated: April 23, 2020 6:25 a.m.
A man wearing a mask walks in Alamo Square Park across from the Painted Ladies, a row of historical Victorian homes in San Francisco. Two treatments being studied in the city could show promise against the coronavirus and COVID-19, the deadly disease it causes.
An image shows monoclonal antibodies at work in the body. These manufactured immune system proteins, which are designed to attack specific targets, are used to treat cancer and other disorders. One is being tested against the coronavirus.
Two drugs being studied by Bay Area doctors for use in fighting coronavirus infections may keep more COVID-19 patients alive and out of the hospital if proved effective.
One of the drugs, colchicine, is a cheap and common anti-inflammatory treatment for gout. UCSF is using it in a clinical trial of COVID-19 patients that is occurring entirely remotely. Patients receive colchicine or placebo pills in the mail and do not need to be seen in person.
The other drug, leronlimab, is a newer experimental treatment that was originally developed for use on HIV patients before being tested more recently on some people with breast cancer. Leronlimab is a monoclonal antibody made by the Vancouver, Wash., company CytoDyn, whose chief science officer is based in San Francisco.
One of the patients who has already been treated with the drug is Samantha Mottet, a 55-year-old resident of Seal Beach (Orange County). She fell ill, primarily with exhaustion, shortly after her husband returned from a trip to the East Coast last month. She was eventually admitted to the hospital at UCLA, where she received an organ transplant 14 years ago, after testing positive for the coronavirus.
Her condition worsened in the hospital and she was placed on a ventilator. The first round of drugs Mottet was given did not improve her COVID-19 symptoms. Then, with her husband’s approval, her doctor administered leronlimab.
Mottet told The Chronicle that the drug was her “last hope” — and it worked. Within 24 hours, she needed less oxygen, and she was taken off the ventilator a few days later. She said she has experienced no side effects.
“All I know is I’m just thankful to be here today,” Mottet said. “This drug worked for me and I hope it works for other people.”
Dr. Warner Greene, a senior investigator with the Gladstone Institutes who has been studying the coronavirus, said leronlimab appears to be “more surgical in its effect.” Colchicine, though well known and widely used, “seems like a blunt instrument for the job at hand,” he said.
Greene said leronlimab is a more targeted kind of drug that would be “interfering with a fundamental part of the process that is causing the trouble.”
“Colchicine may be doing that, but it’s having its effect all over the body,” he said. “That said, if it blocked the cytokine storm ... that would be wonderful.”
Doctors studying leronlimab think it could be broadly effective. While CytoDyn would like to use the drug on ICU patients, its greatest benefit will likely be on patients in earlier stages of COVID-19 — hospitalized people with symptoms more severe than mild shortness of breath, said Lalezari of CytoDyn.
Dr. Bruce Patterson, CEO of the San Carlos single-cell diagnostic company IncellDx that has been working on leronlimab, said the drug is exciting because it appears to impact some of the most essential elements of the viral disease, “not just a piece of what COVID is all about.”
“This is the ideal drug to meet everybody’s needs about reopening the country,” Patterson said. “If we had something that we could say we can treat the severe (patients) and we can keep the mild-to-moderates from getting severe, then it becomes the flu. Then we’re not so scared of people getting infected.”
J.D. Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris
https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/Tw...219896.php
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