Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has revealed plans to launch a global clinical trial to look at using one of its drugs to help treat the immune response triggered by Covid-19 in severely ill patients.
The UK drugs group said it was testing Calquence – which is currently used to treat some blood cancers – after encouraging early clinical results suggested that suppressing the inflammation caused by the immune response could reduce the respiratory harm caused by coronavirus.
This could cut deaths from Covid-19 and the need for ventilation in patients with life-threatening symptoms of the virus, Astra said.
Jose Baselga, executive vice-president of oncology research and development at Astra, said: “With this trial we are responding to the novel insights of the scientific community and hope to demonstrate that adding Calquence to best supportive care reduces the need to place patients on ventilators and improves their chances of survival.
“This is the fastest launch of any clinical trial in the history of AstraZeneca.”
