Glaxo and AstraZeneca in Covid-19 breakthrough hopes

Britain’s biggest drug companies AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline today revealed major breakthroughs in the fight against Covid-19 with a ramp up in virus-fighting technologies.

AstraZeneca is fast-tracking a clinical trial for its blood cancer drug Calquence amid hopes that it can boost the survival chances of severely ill Covid-19 patients. It is now undertaking the fastest launch of any trial in the history of the company.

GSK has also struck an unprecedented partnership with rival Sanofi as the pair look to develop a vaccine for the disease that will be available in the second half of 2021.

Clinical trials for the vaccine are expected to begin later this year.

It is one of seven collaborations GSK has entered into hoping to find a successful vaccine for Covid-19. The disease has so far resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 people worldwide.

Cambridge-based AstraZeneca is examining whether Calquence is able to reduce the severity of Covid-19-induced respiratory distress, with the potential to cut death rates and the need for assisted ventilation in patients with life-threatening symptoms.

The drug has already been approved for the treatment of adult patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia in the US and several other countries.

However, a new two-part trial is being developed in record time to accelerate data capture and analysis for its potential as a Covid-19 treatment. The first part will involve patients hospitalised with Covid-19 who are not in intensive care before looking at how it performs when added to the best supportive care for patients in ICUs.

The pandemic has brought an unprecedented response from the pharmaceuticals industry, with clinical trials for many other diseases on hold and normal rivalries suspended.

This includes a joint initiative by Glaxo, Astra and the University of Cambridge to support the Government’s drive to ramp up testing. As part of the collaboration, fast-growing AIM stock Novacyt is providing its Covid-19 test to generate results data at Cambridge university’s Anne McLaren laboratory.

Glaxo’s partnership with Sanofi will see the UK company contribute its proven pandemic adjuvant technology to Sanofi’s S-protein Covid-19 antigen.

An adjuvant is added to some vaccines to enhance the immune response, and has been shown to create a stronger and longer-lasting immunity against infections than the vaccine alone. It can also improve the likelihood of delivering an effective vaccine that can be manufactured at scale.