Edina Pharm Co. Testing Drug That Could Help Lungs Damaged By COVID-19
EDINA, Minn. (WCCO) -- Even when the most severely ill patients survive COVID-19, their battle is far from over. That's because both the infection itself as well as spending weeks on a ventilator, can leave lung tissue permanently damaged and scared.
"We are seeing it. Some people are recovering and some people aren't," Regions Hospital pulmonologist Dr. Charlene McEvoy said.
McEvoy says the virus is like nothing she and her colleagues have ever seen. The viral infection will trigger an inflammatory response in the body's immune system that often leads to widespread and multi-organ damage.
"It is affecting not only the lungs, but the vascular system, the heart, the brain, skin and pancreas. We're seeing diabetes develop," McEvoy said.
Without any current Food and Drug Administration-approved drug to mitigate pulmonary complications from COVID, Edina pharmaceutical company Humanetics Corporation could be on the verge of such a badly needed breakthrough.
"It's kind of the new frontier for COVID research," Ron Zenk, CEO of Humanetics, said.
Zenk explains how the company obtained exclusive rights years ago on the drug BIO 300. It was developed a decade ago by the Department of Defense as a way to protect soldiers on the battlefield from the harmful effects from radiation caused by nuclear weapons. It has since been studied as a way to prevent lung and other tissue damage from the negative effects of cancer radiation therapies.
Now, BIO 300 could be a savior for patients and doctors as a way to treat and prevent the scaring from pulmonary fibrosis due to COVID-19 inflammation.
"It's the cytokine storm you hear about and the inflammation it causes," Zenk said. "We hope to prevent that inflammation or reduce that inflammation, mitigate it, so it doesn't cause immediate or longer-term damage."
Soon, a 12-week, clinical study by New York University's Langone Health on 60 recovering COVID-19 patients will look for the proof.
Explains CEO Zenk, "when you come out of the hospital and discharge you continue to have this COVID fire smoldering that causes permanent damage, and we're hoping to prevent that."
If trials are successful, the FDA could authorize the drug's emergency use and allow Humanetics to partner with another company to bring it to market sometime in 2021.