How Will We Stop the Impacts of COVID
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID Tracker, 2,885 Americans died from COVID just last week (9/7/22). While this number is down from the height of the pandemic, that is still 2,800+ families suffering the loss of a loved one on a weekly basis.
A proposed treatment from CovinnovationsTM (COVI-001) comprised of two FDA approved medications has demonstrated the potential to directly combat and halt COVID-19 after people have become infected with the disease, particularly those with intense reactions which have been hospitalized and are receiving oxygen.
The COVID-19 infection has two stages. The first stage is viral replication for which many drugs have been shown to provide benefit. To continue the chain of infection, a virus must undergo the process of replication to create new, infectious virions that are able to infect other cells of the body or subsequent hosts (NIH National Library of Medicine). Most people survive the first stage without serious incident.
A small percentage go on to the second stage which is characterized by an overactive immune response referred to as a cytokine storm. Cytokine Storm is defined by the National Cancer Institute as “a severe immune reaction in which the body releases too many cytokines into the blood too quickly. Cytokines play an important role in normal immune responses, but having a large amount of them released in the body all at once can be harmful...and sometimes may be severe or life threatening...”
There is no therapeutic available which is widely accepted to be effective that treats COVID-19 after the inflammatory phase of the disease takes hold other than dexamethasone, which provides mild benefit.
With COVI-001, Covinnovations™ has identified a drug that appears to terminate the cytokine storm by suppressing IL-6 activity. A retrospective study demonstrated a 68% reduction in mortality (p<0.05) and a 37% reduction in length of hospital stay (p<0.01) in patients hospitalized with COVID-related hypoxia when compared to standard of care. Patients in the group provided the drug had a 93.6% survival rate as compared to the control group which had a survival rate of 78.5%.
Covinnovations™ is proceeding with FDA approval to fast track COVI-001 for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). Once approved, COVI-001 will become the standard treatment for all hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the U.S. who require oxygen support. As a result, COVI-001 will become the standard of care around the world.