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The antioxidant drug, developed by NPO Petrovax Pharm, is used for respiratory infections caused by viruses and as a booster for vaccines. The drug is undergoing phase 3 testing in covid-19 patients in Russia and will soon expand testing in Slovakia, according to company president Mikhail Tsyferov in an interview.
Preliminary results from the trial are expected in February and will be published in scientific journals, according to Tsyferov. “This is our ticket to export markets,” he said.
Russia, with the fifth number of covid-19 cases in the world, faces a second wave of pandemic that threatens to overwhelm the hospital system.
So far, there are no drugs to cure covid-19, according to the World Health Organization. Last week, the agency advised against the use of Gilead Sciences’ antiviral remdesivir, one of the drugs given to US President Donald Trump, when he was diagnosed with the disease in October.
The approach to polyoxide testing – registered for use since 1996 for various diseases in Russia, some former Soviet republics and later Slovakia – differs from the Kremlin’s rush to authorize experimental vaccines against covid-19 before they are fully examined.
In August, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the country would allow the widespread use of a vaccine for covid-19 before tests established its safety and effectiveness. A second test vaccine was approved in October and a third is expected later this year.
Poloxanthium is an immunotropic medicine that helps stimulate the immune system. Patients with covid-19 can get sick because their immune systems don’t react sufficiently to protect them from the virus, suggesting that such treatment may help, according to research by scientists at the University of Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis, published in August.
Clinical trials with the drug for the treatment of covid-19 began in April and showed that the drug does not cause an excessive immune response, Tsyferov said. According to the president of the pharmaceutical company, 330 patients participate in the Russian test and Petrovax plans to include 25 people in a trial in Slovakia approved by health authorities this month. The study is conducted according to WHO protocols, according to Petrovax.
Petrovax also conducts several parallel tests, including to see if the drug works as a preventative for doctors treating coronavirus. A recent study included 81 people with moderate to severe cases of covid-19, 80 percent of whom were oxygen-supported, and there were no deaths, according to Tsyferov.
CanSino vaccine
If the main study proves its effectiveness, Petrovax plans to register the use of polyoxide for covid-19 cases in addition to Russia and Slovakia. Petrovax is in contact with researchers from Oxford and Munich, while its experts have suggested applying for registration in Germany, the UK and the US. The order preparation work has already begun.
The company has the capacity to produce up to 15 million doses per year and currently sells 2.5 million per year.
Petrovax, which has a deal to produce CanSino Biologics’ covid-19 vaccine locally, plans to invest one billion rubles (about $ 13 million) to increase vaccine production.
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