May 2020 • PharmaTimes Magazine • 12-13
// COVID-19 //
Cancer Research UK cuts fundings grants
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) will cut funding to its existing grants and institutes by up to 10% and its national network of Centres by 20%, after an “unprecedented financial effect” from the COVID-19 crisis.
In an open letter to the researcher community, the charity’s Iain Foulkes, Professor Karen Vousden, and Professor Charles Swanton said the cuts equate to £44 million.
They note: ‘Universities have closed, laboratories have wound down their activities, experiments have stopped’, and ‘most of our clinical academics, including our Clinical Research Fellows, have been called to the frontline in hospitals all over the country’. They also stress that, around the country, ‘CRUK institutes and laboratories are repurposing their resources to help the COVID-19 response’.
Further explaining the move, Foulkes, who is executive director of research and innovation at the charity, said that the “unprecedented measures to control the global COVID-19 pandemic have had a huge impact on both our researchers’ ability to carry on in the lab, and on our ability to fundraise. Faced with a predicted loss of 20-25% of fundraising income, we are forced to look for savings across our current portfolio.”
The charity funds nearly 50% of the cancer research in the UK. “We have worked hard to ensure the cuts are limited and give our researchers flexibility in how to make them,” Foulkes stressed, and added that the charity is “hopeful that limiting our spending now will enable us to continue funding life-saving research in the long run.
“Cancer doesn’t go away during or after COVID-19, but we’re incredibly proud of our community of researchers who have been very quick to respond to the crisis, using their kit, skills and talent to support the NHS and the COVID-19 response.”
Edinburgh Uni researchers work on drug repurposing
Up to 150 researchers at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Inflammation Research are being redeployed to work on a project that aims to repurpose existing and experimental medicines for COVID-19.
The team believes that new therapies could be discovered and implemented before a vaccine becomes widely available, by testing medicines for other conditions already in use or in trials.
The new project – STOPCOVID – will focus on the inflammatory pathways that lead directly to lung injury, which is associated with the most severe aspects of COVID-19.
Researchers will evaluate whether medicines can block inflammation in the early stages of the disease to change the course of infection and prevent the need for a ventilator.
The team is working with pharmaceutical companies from across the world and has already identified key drugs and mechanisms that are currently in development or are being used for other diseases.
“COVID-19 is the biggest global challenge of a generation. By rapidly testing therapies that stop the inflammatory cascade associated with the most severe aspect of the disease – leading ultimately to respiratory failure – we can urgently discover ways to prevent the need for a ventilator,” said Professor Kev Dhaliwal, STOPCOVID lead and consultant in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. “We must unite together, across sectors, across disciplines, across continents to tackle the devastating effects of this virus as fast as possible.”
STOPCOVID has already secured £2 million funding from medical research charity LifeArc, and investment firm Baillie Gifford has also agreed to provide funding for the project. The team is hoping to raise a total of £15 million from the private sector, and says discussions with other potential partners are ongoing.
Roche to launch COVID-19 antibodies test
Roche has announced the development and upcoming launch of its Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 serology test to detect antibodies in people who have been exposed to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes the COVID-19 disease.
The Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoassay is an in vitro test, using human serum and plasma drawn from a blood sample, to detect antibodies and determine the body’s immune reaction to SARS-CoV-2.
Antibody testing is key in helping to identify to people who have been infected by the virus, especially those who have not displayed symptoms.
The test could also support priority screening of high risk groups – including healthcare workers and food supply workers – who might already have developed a certain level of immunity and can continue serving and/or return to work.
“Every reliable test on the market serves its purpose for healthcare systems to help us overcome this pandemic,” said Severin Schwan, chief executive of Roche Group. “Roche is collaborating closely with health authorities and ramping up production to ensure fast availability of the test globally.”
GSK, Sanofi join forces to develop COVID-19 vaccine
Drug giants GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi are joining forces and technologies to develop an adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine.
Under the collaboration, Sanofi will contribute its S-protein COVID-19 antigen, which is based on recombinant DNA technology.
According to the firms, this tech has produced an exact genetic match to proteins found on the surface of the virus, and the DNA sequence encoding this antigen has been combined into the DNA of the baculovirus expression platform, the basis of Sanofi’s licensed recombinant influenza product in the US.
GSK will contribute its proven pandemic adjuvant technology, which is designed to boost the immune response to a vaccine and can be of particular importance in a pandemic situation since it may reduce the amount of vaccine protein required per dose.
“This collaboration brings two of the world’s largest vaccines companies together,” said GSK’s chief executive Emma Walmsley. “By combining our science and our technologies, we believe we can help accelerate the global effort to develop a vaccine to protect as many people as possible from COVID-19.”
As previously announced by Sanofi, development of the recombinant-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate is being supported through funding and a collaboration with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in the US.
AZ to test Calquence
for COVID-19
AstraZeneca has unveiled plans for a randomised, global clinical trial to test whether Calquence (acalabrutinib) could be used to treat the exaggerated immune response (cytokine storm) linked with COVID-19 infection in severely ill patients.
Calquence is a next-generation, highly selective BTK inhibitor currently used to treat certain types of blood cancers.
The CALAVI trial is designed on the back of “strong scientific evidence” supporting the role of the Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) pathway in the production of inflammatory cytokines and on encouraging early clinical data.
The study is based on early clinical data with Calquence demonstrating that a decrease in inflammation caused by BTK inhibition appears to reduce the severity of COVID-19-induced respiratory distress, the firm said, adding that its goal is to evaluate whether adding the drug to best supportive care will reduce mortality and the need for assisted ventilation.
“Given the well documented role of the protein BTK in regulating inflammation, it is possible that inhibiting BTK with acalabrutinib could provide clinical benefit in patients with advanced COVID-19 lung disease,” said Louis Staudt, chief of the Lymphoid Malignancies Branch at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). “As with all new treatments, it will be necessary to gather data from clinical trials in order to understand the best and safest treatment options for patients.”