Hate to post this but it's life. Sorrento Therape
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The biotech believes its drug could get patients out of the ICU sooner
By Jonathan WosenBiotech reporter
July 20, 2020
8:17 AM
San Diego biotech Sorrento Therapeutics announced Monday that it has received Food and Drug Administration clearance for a COVID-19 trial that could begin as soon as August.
Sorrento’s experimental drug, Abivertinib, shuts off two cellular signals that can cause inflammation. Unchecked inflammation, known as cytokine storms, are deadly for COVID-19 patients whose lungs have filled with fluid and dead cells.
“The drug hopefully will let patients out of the ICU and go back to their normal lives,” said Mark Brunswick, Sorrento’s senior vice president of regulatory affairs.
The upcoming trial will enroll 40 COVID-19 patients who are ill enough to be in the intensive care unit but are not yet on a ventilator. Half of patients will get the experimental drug, while the other half will get a placebo. Brunswick says that the company should know within three weeks of the trial’s start whether the drug is safe and if it helps patients leave the ICU sooner.
Pharma giant AstraZeneca has a drug that works similarly by targeting one of the same two signals Sorrento’s drug blocks. Scientists reported in June that AstraZeneca’s drug reduced inflammation in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. That bodes well for Sorrento, according to Raghuram Selvaraju, a research analyst for investment bank H.C. Wainwright & Co.
The AstraZeneca announcement, Selvaraju wrote, “only enhances the appeal of Sorrento’s candidate, in our view.”
Sorrento licensed Abivertinib from fellow San Diego biotech ACEA Therapeutics, which gives the company exclusive rights to use the drug outside of China. Sorrento also plans to test whether the drug reduces excess inflammation triggered by some cancer drugs.
LINK: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business...d-19-trial
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