The Israeli coronavirus drug reportedly with a 100% success rate even among severely ill patients is being tested in the United States for the first time.
Pluristem Therapeutics Inc., a biotech company based in Haifa/Israel, reported that seven patients who were at a high risk of death due to respiratory failure, multi-system organ failure, including heart and kidney failure survived after receiving this medication.
The seven patients were treated with Pluristem’s allogeneic placental expanded (PLX) cells. Essentially, these cells can potentially suppress or reverse the dangerous over-activation of the immune system that causes death in many coronavirus patients.
Now, a critical COVID-19 patient in the US has been treated with PLX cell therapy at Holy Name Medical Center in New Jersey. The results of the treatment have yet to be released.
Pluristem Therapeutics uses placentas to grow smart cells and programs them to secrete therapeutic proteins in the bodies of sick people.
Company CEO and president Yaky Yanay said Thursday that a trial will come soon and, once conducted, he hopes that “approval can be very fast.” Upon receiving the green light from regulators, he said, massive quantities of treatment can be prepared. “We can manufacture cells to treat thousands very quickly,” he said.
Treatment consists of 15-milliliter doses of cells — known as PLacental eXpanded cells — administered in simple inter-muscular injections. Once in the body, Yanay said that the cells become like “a small factory that generates therapeutic proteins.”
He explained: “Most drugs we know are administered in the quantity we need, but this is a ‘drug’ that can sense the human body’s environment, and based on the signals that the cells receive from the body, they secrete therapeutic proteins that push the body toward regeneration.”
The cells secrete two types of proteins. One reduces inflammation; the other is to regulate the immune system. Yanay hopes these so-called immunomodulation proteins can slam the brakes on the immune system to stop it turning on itself, as commonly happens with critical coronavirus patients.
“They stop the body from attacking its own organs by having the placenta cells secrete immunomodulatory factors, basically relaxing the immune system, as the other proteins reduce inflammation,” said Yanay.
He elaborated: “Patients who are in severe condition and dying are actually dying from a severe respiratory condition. What is actually happening is there is a very high level of inflammation and at a certain point the immune system of the patient will attack [the patient], mostly in the lungs.”
Until now, Pluristem’s technology has been largely used to treat people suffering from poor blood flow to the legs, but the company’s scientists were able to quickly repurpose the cells to treat coronavirus patients.
“We take cells from the placenta after full-term delivery and we have developed technology to expand the cells to very large numbers, in an environment that mimics the human body,” Yanay said. “The technology allows us to treat more than 20,000 people from a single placenta.”
His team “programs” the cells, which then have a wide range of proteins they can secrete. The cells don’t just deliver the proteins but also “adjust the level of secretion based on signals they receive from the body,” he said.
Yanay stated that Pluristem, which is based in Haifa, will carry on treating people using patient-by-patient approvals while working as quickly as possible for full approval by regulators.
“We are receiving many inquiries and requests for treatment from health care providers and families worldwide,” he said. “In parallel with our planned clinical trial, we expect to continue treating patients under compassionate use through the appropriate regulatory clearances in the United States and Israel, as well as expanding treatment under compassionate use in other countries.
“Our main focus remains, however, the initiation of a multinational clinical study,” he said, adding that he was hopeful “cell therapy is a very good candidate to tackle a complex disease that is attacking several organs.”
“New York Times Reporter Complaint to YouTube Prompted Takedown of Bio-Tech Firm’s Video on UV Light Treatment for Coronavirus Patients
By Kristinn Taylor
Published April 25, 2020 at 3:10pm
142 Comments
Share
(351)
Tweet
Email
New York Times reporter Davey Alba posted several tweets Friday night about his efforts to get YouTube to take down videos about the COVID-19 Chinese coronavirus regarding President Trump recent comments about experimental treatments for the virus and a company, Aytu BioScience, that is claiming a UV light treatment can kill the coronavirus inside patients’ bodies via a fiber optic catheter inserted in an intubation tube. The company issued a press release on Tuesday about the treatment, two days before Trump was mocked by the media for speculating about such treatment. The company says a peer-reviewed study is forthcoming.
YouTube took down the Aytu BioScience video Friday night soon after Alba reported the video to YouTube. ” From today’s Gateway Pundit. The panic mongers determined to keep the lockdown in place indefinitely are going so far as to censor reports of experimental new treatments that may prove effective in treating the disease. Who gave the New York Times to shut down an infomercial of a company testing a possible new treatment.
Also notice that this was obviously what Trump was referring to when he talked about the possibility of injecting people with a cleansing agent to cure COVID-19 patients. The media and Nancy Pelosi misrepresented his remarks to mean he wanted to inject people with Lysol.
Our media and politicians have become so mean-spirited and vicious that they are the real plague that is destroying our country, not some virus.
“Coronavirus drug to be tested on patients in Israel
XPOVIO was developed for treating patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma and is already FDA approved for this purpose.
By ROSSELLA TERCATIN APRIL 23, 2020 19:27 Email Twitter Facebook fb-messenger
Colorful of tablets and capsules pill in blister packaging arranged with beautiful pattern with flare light. Pharmaceutical industry concept. Pharmacy drugstore. Antibiotic drug resistance (photo credit: INGIMAGE)
Colorful of tablets and capsules pill in blister packaging arranged with beautiful pattern with flare light. Pharmaceutical industry concept. Pharmacy drugstore. Antibiotic drug resistance
(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
A drug that has shown promising results against coronavirus is going to be tested in four hospitals in Israel as part of a global trial involving some 40 clinical centers.
The drug, Selinexor, or XPOVIO as it is currently marketed in the US, was developed by oncology-focused pharmaceutical company Karyopharm Therapeutics. The company was co-founded by Israeli scientist Sharon Shacham in 2008. It is based in the US but maintains a regional office in Israel.”
“Closing Bell: Wall Street Pares Gains on News of Drug Trial Flop
Matthew ClarkApr 23, 2020
Wall Street’s three main indexes rose early in the day, only to cut gains after a report surfaced that a potential COVID-19 treatment flopped in a clinical trial, plus more in today’s Closing Bell on Money & Markets.
The Top Story
Stocks appeared to be on track for a solid day of gains before a report from the Financial Times surfaced that Gilead Sciences Inc.’s (Nasdaq: GILD) experimental antiviral drug for the coronavirus had failed in a randomized clinical trial.
The news caused indexes to cut earlier gains by nearly half before the three major indexes finished relatively flat.” From today’s Moneyandmarkets.com web site.
“Hopes dashed as coronavirus drug remdesivir fails first trial
RemdesivirReuters
There had been been widespread hope that remdesivir could treat Covid-19
A potential antiviral drug for the coronavirus has reportedly failed in its first randomised clinical trial.
There had been widespread hope that remdesivir could treat Covid-19.
But a Chinese trial showed that the drug had not been successful, according to draft documents accidentally published by the World Health Organization.
The drug did not improve patients’ condition or reduce the pathogen’s presence in the bloodstream, it said.
When will we have a vaccine?
The US firm behind the drug, Gilead Sciences, said the document had mischaracterised the study.
What do we know about the study?
News of the failed trial spread after the WHO posted details on its clinical trials database, before it was removed. The WHO has since confirmed the draft report was mistakenly uploaded.
It showed that researchers studied 237 patients, administering the drug to 158 and comparing their progress with the remaining 79, who received a placebo.
After a month, 13.9% of the patients taking the drug had died compared to 12.8% of those receiving the placebo. The trial was stopped early because of side-effects.
“Remdesivir was not associated with clinical or virological benefits,” the summary states.
All three main US stock indexes fell back from gains of over 1% after the news broke over the trial.” From BBC.
Note that the WHO “accidentally” published the study on its site, and then quickly took it down. It only reached the public because the Stat site captured a screenshot of it. Doesn’t say anything positive about the integrity and honesty of WHO.
Even so, the Finacial Times got wind of the report and publicized it in financial circles. As a result, Giliad’s stock took a heavy hit in today’s trading.
“Interest in Gilead’s remdesivir has been high as there are currently no approved treatments or preventive vaccines for COVID-19, and doctors are desperate for anything that might alter the course of the disease that attacks the lungs and can shut down other organs in extremely severe cases.
In the Chinese trial remdesivir, given by intravenous infusion, failed to improve patients’ condition or reduce the pathogen’s presence in the bloodstream, according to draft documents published accidentally by the World Health Organization (WHO).
But details were thin and suggested limitations in interpreting the data that has not yet been fully reviewed.
A screenshot of the WHO posting, captured by the medical news website STAT before it was taken down, said the trial enrolled 237 patients with 158 receiving remdesivir compared with 79 who got a placebo.
The rate of death was similar at 13.9% for remdesivir versus 12.8% in the control group.
“It’s still not that large of a study and therefore the statistics coming out of the trial aren’t exactly robust,” Mizuho analyst Salim Syed said in a research note.
Gilead in a statement said the WHO posting included inappropriate characterizations of the study, which was terminated early due to low enrollment and, as a result, cannot be used to make statistically meaningful conclusions.
“The study results are inconclusive, though trends in the data suggest a potential benefit for remdesivir, particularly among patients treated early in disease,” the company said without providing details to back up that assertion.” From Reuters.
A total test sample of seven is clearly inadequate to draw any conclusions. There was no “double blind” study of seven other patients who were given alternative treatments. I hope this Israeli firm is on to something. But so far the results are inconclusive.