A fresh peer-reviewed study suggests that cancer drug plitidepsin, which is produced by Spanish pharmaceutical company PharmaMar under the trade name Aplidin, could be up to 27.5 times more potent in treating COVID-19 than remdesivir, another treatment that has already received emergency use approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th January, 2021) A fresh peer-reviewed study suggests that cancer drug plitidepsin, which is produced by Spanish pharmaceutical company PharmaMar under the trade name Aplidin, could be up to 27.5 times more potent in treating COVID-19 than remdesivir, another treatment that has already received emergency use approval from the US food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Scientists examined the efficacy of plitidepsin, which has received limited clinical approval, and in vitro tests on the same cell lines showed the treatment to be "27.5-fold more potent than remdesivir," the report, which was published in the Science journal, read.
In particular, tests showed plitidepsin to be effective at reducing the viral load in the lungs of animals who had been injected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, according to the report.
"We believe that our data and the initial positive results from PharmaMar's clinical trial suggests that plitidepsin should be strongly considered for expanded clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19," the report read.
PharmaMar reported as early as March 2020 that plitidepsin was effective in fighting coronaviruses.
Remdesivir, which is sold by Gilead Sciences under the brand name Veklury, was hailed as a treatment for COVID-19 in mid-2020 and the FDA in October granted the drug emergency use approval.
