Shoshanna Solomon is The Times of Israel reporter on start-ups and businesses
Preclinical knowledge has shown that the drug has anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties, with the possibility of inflammatory lung disorders, such as pneumonia, and decrease pulmonary fibrotic damage, the company said.
The compassionate and experimental use of the drug in Israel has had “encouraging results,” Raday said. In fact, the drug was given to seven patients in an Israeli hospital who were “at risk of death,” he said. Compassionate use occurs when the workers’ medical body treats patients with drugs in outdoor research from clinical trials, in special cases and with the approval of medical authorities.
All patients in the Opaganib-treated organization were discharged from the hospital without mechanical ventilation, while 33% of the paired control organization required mechanical ventilation, the company said earlier this month.
Patients treated with the drug were also previously removed from a high flow nasal cannula used to treat patients with acute respiratory failure; time was reduced to 10 days in the group treated with Opaganib, compared to 15 days in the corresponding case-control group. .
“In addition to the clinical effects, we have achieved very clever effects on inflammatory markers and others,” Raday said. The amount of lymphocytes, for example, a type of white blood cell phone, was “very significantly” higher in the treated group. unlike the undated group, which is an intelligent indication of the viral infection “in danger,” he said. Markers indicating general inflammation also decreased further in the treated group.
Raday explained that the drug targets a single sphingosine kinase-2 (SK2) enzyme and inhibits its activity; This inhibition reduces both degrees of inflammation, but also stops the replication of the virus.
“When unbalanced, this enzyme potentially increases cytokines and inflammation, and by inhibiting it, it creates a normalization of the grades of some of those cytokines, which restores them to normal,” Raday said.
Research has shown that the so-called “cytokine storm” is an out-of-control overproduction of inflammation markers that, in turn, cause an aberrant systemic inflammatory response, which is paramount in the onset of the acute respiratory distress syndrome that is the result of COVID. -19 infection.
In addition, once the viruses have inflamed a mobile, they seek to replicate, but cannot do so without taking the mobile mechanism “hostage,” Raday explained. The SK2 enzyme that inhibits Opaganib “is a component for replication of the virus on mobile,” and by inhibiting it, replication cannot occur, he said.
Raday added that drugs used lately to treat patients with COVID-19 – adding Remdevisir and dexamethasone, a corticosteroid used for its anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive effects, have been shown to be effective in treating fatal disease, but “unfortunately” there are none. revolutionary remedies in the market right now.
RedHill is now fully accelerating to recruit patients for its foreign Phase II/IIIA matrix and hopes to have the effects of this year’s fourth trimester.
“If we see effects similar to those we have noticed in compassionate use, those would in fact be exceptional effects, which deserve emergency use authorization,” Raday said.
The company is already intended for the production and distribution of advertising until the end of the year.
“If we give this to patients who are hospitalized and receiving oxygen and only a small percentage of them progress to require mechanical ventilation, and improve in a few days, then it becomes a completely different profile of the disease, a manageable disease. “Raday said. The effect of such a drug “goes beyond patients and their lives,” he added, as it can help save long-term global closures to curb the spread of the virus. “He does everything else. “. but terrifying. “
The company’s shares listed on the Nasdaq have risen 11% in the last 12 months, leading to a valuation of $284 million.