As the Covid-19 situation gradually moves from a pandemic to what most experts believe will be an endemic situation, the methods of treating the disease are also shifting, with a growing emphasis on medication to help prevent those who catch the virus suffering more symptoms.
While vaccination remains a hot topic for some – not least with the arguments about making this mandatory for NHS staff – the development of new antiviral therapies provide another weapon to effectively fight the disease.
The latest drug being trialled is Molnupiravir. It is made by Merck, Sharp and Dohme (MSD) and has already been licensed in the UK after successful trials in November aimed at preventing severe disease.
In the latest trial, volunteers are being sought among vaccinated people aged over 50 or with underlying health conditions, who will be given the drug in pill form if they test positive for Covid. This will help establish its effectiveness at this stage in preventing the disease from progressing to a severe stage. Over 4,500 volunteers have signed up, but 6,000 are needed.
Health secretary Sajid Javid appealed for volunteers to “help us to learn more about medicines which could save thousands of lives”.
He added that antiviral medications are “part of our approach as we learn to live with Covid, by preventing the most vulnerable from being hospitalised”, he said.
Pharmaceutical recruitment agencies in the UK may find this is a major area of expansion over the coming years as the focus shifts to tackling an endemic disease in an open society that poses little threat to most, but could be a danger to those whose immune systems are compromised or who are particularly vulnerable.
When the pandemic began, a range of existing medications were tested to establish their potential to counteract the disease. This led to claims – still believed by some – that the anti-malarial drug Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin can treat the disease. Others that have been in use have now been withdrawn, including Remdesivir and Eli Lily.
However, other drugs were found to have some beneficial effects and remain in use, the first of these being Dexamethasone, which the UK licensed for this purpose in June 2020.
The process that helped establish the effectiveness of Dexamethasone could enable the pharmaceutics sector to develop more treatments for other conditions, according to Professor Sir Martin Lindsay, the researcher who led the research on the drug.
Professor Lindsay has established a new research organisation called Protas, designed to make it quicker and cheaper to research new treatments for a wide range of conditions.
Protas board member Sir John Bell, who was one of the creators of the Oxford vaccine, said conditions that need more treatments to address them include “heart, lung and respiratory disease, arthritis, cancer, depression and dementia”.
Sanofi has just been announced as the first partner for Protas. Its chief medical officer and global head of development Dietmar Berger said: “We are taking a bold [step] to significantly reduce the cost of some of our clinical trials, focusing on what matters the most for patients, doctors, regulators