After Donald Trump, who was infected with coronavirus, underwent intensive care, testing of the drug used to treat the President was suspended in the USA.
The head of the White House himself, after returning from the hospital, began advertising an experimental antibody-based drug. The President claimed that the Regeneron Pharmaceuticals drug has accelerated his recovery. The president’s applications were supposed to allow for the issuance of a licence for mass production of the drug in an expedited manner, but at this stage the problem arose.
A similar drug is also being developed by Eli Lilly, which has been brought to the attention of government inspectors. Their conclusions were not so bright, writes Reuters, citing their own sources. Eli Lilly representatives reported that clinical trials of a drug for the treatment of COVID-19, similar to that given by Trump, have been suspended for safety reasons.
“Out of caution, the independent data safety monitoring commission ACTIV-3 recommended that registration be suspended”, – said company spokeswoman Molly McCully. – “Lilly supports the decision of the independent DSMB to carefully ensure the safety of patients participating in this study.”
An antibody-based drug called ACTIV-3 could be used in severe cases. During the study, it was distributed in nursing homes to see if it could prevent infection of staff and the elderly living there. The tests started back in August. It was planned to involve 10,000 volunteers in the trials. But the inspectors found serious problems in the production process.
“The disruptions are quite serious and have a significant impact on public health, and something needs to be corrected”, – said Patricia Zettler, former Deputy General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Sanitary Surveillance.
As News Front reported, on the eve it became known that coronavirus vaccine trials were being stopped by the American company Johnson & Johnson. Another month earlier, serious side effects were detected in the vaccine of the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Presumably, one of the participants in the trial had transverse myelitis, an inflammatory syndrome affecting the spinal cord.