Btobioinnovation.com

Author: Jean-Claude Muller, 穆卓Executive Editor at BtoBioInnovation  jcm9144@gmail.com

SPECIAL REPORT #20.10

COVID-19: The Lockdown

Dear Readers, Dear Friends

First of all, I wish you are all doing fine, most probably as I am, in a strict confinement to avoid the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

I guess you all have your own stream of information about the development of the pandemic and the actions implemented by the different governments and health authorities around the globe.

It is rather difficult, for us at btobioinnovation, to report relevant data on COVID-19 treatments, vaccines or diagnostics, since there is currently no validated data and the hype is extreme on all these topics. We, like other media, have the strong temptation to fill the void in publishing news and comments. We have decided not to add to the frenetic need to be the first one to report on any news and wait until we get access to validated data. We are therefore eagerly waiting to get the results of the European “Discovery” trial coordinated by French INSERM which started on March 22, 2020.

The trial intends to include 3, 200 (3, 400 now) European patients from Belgium, France, Germany, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, from conventional hospital departments or intensive care units.

The Discovery trial includes five treatment modalities

• Standard of care
• Standard of care plus remdesivir
• Standard of care plus lopinavir and ritonavir (two HIV treatments)
• Standard of care plus lopinavir, ritonavir and interferon beta
• Standard of care plus hydroxy-chloroquine

Preliminary results are expected by April 15 and might not be easy to interpret depending on the severity of the patients’ status in each arm.

In the meantime, we wish that you keep the advised physical distancing while activating your social network.

Do not hesitate to contact me on this topic.

Paris, April 1, 2020.

This document has been prepared by btobioinnovation and is provided to you for information purposes only.  The information contained in this document has been obtained from sources that btobioinnovation believes are reliable but btobioinnovation does not warrant that it is accurate or complete. The views presented in this document are those of btobioinnovation’s editor at the time of writing and are subject to change.  btobioinnovation has no obligation to update its opinions or the information in this document.