Long COVID, the next frontier for vaccine and drug developers
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Major drug companies, including leading COVID-19 vaccine developers, have joined efforts to discover a potential treatment for long COVID, a condition affecting over 100 million people globally, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Long COVID is marked by hundreds of different symptoms such as fatigue, chest pain, and brain fog lasting more than three months. It affects people who had both mild and severe COVID-19, including children.
Leading developers of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics are in the early discussions with scientists on how to address the disease, which affects an estimated 1-in-7 working-age adults, according to Reuters.
Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) is donating its COVID-19 vaccine for early U.K.-based testing to determine if the mRNA-based shot can spring the immune system into action and address the long COVID symptoms, the news agency reported citing a company statement.
Meanwhile, Xarelto (rivaroxaban), a blood thinner developed by Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), is among four drugs that will be tested in a U.K.-funded trial led by University College, London involving 4,500 patients with long COVID.
âItâs challenging, because weâre going for a hazy target,â noted Amitava Banerjee, the lead investigator of the trial. âPeople on the industry side are trying to figure it out too,â he added.
Developers of COVID-19 antibody drugs, GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK), Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ:VIR), and Humanigen (HGEN), confirmed they had talks with researchers regarding long COVID trials based on their current treatments.
Without detailing the plans, the Swiss pharma giant Roche (OTCQX:RHHBY) and the maker of the Paxlovid COVID-19 pill and Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer (PFE), said they were also interested in a cure for long COVID.
Meanwhile, Boston, Massachusetts-based clinical-stage biotherapeutics company, PureTech Health (PRTC) is advancing a mid-stage trial for an investigational pulmonary fibrosis therapy to target long-term lung scarring associated with COVID.
Other developers working on long COVID therapeutics include CytoDyn (OTCQB:CYDY), AIM ImmunoTech (AIM), NLS Pharmaceutics (NLSP), Axcella Health (AXLA), and Tonix Pharmaceuticals (TNXP).
In June, CytoDyn (OTCQB:CYDY) shared interim data from its COVID-19 long-haulers clinical trial, which, according to the company, showed an improvement of most of the symptoms compared to a placebo.