The Japanese pharmaceutical giant Takeda announced today that it is developing a drug against the new coronavirus and said it is in contact with regulators around the world to accelerate its release to the market.
The new drug, derived from blood plasma, would be used to treat “high-risk individuals affected by Covid-19,” the company said in a statement.
Takeda plans to send information to the United States Congress on Wednesday about drug development, and is in “discussions with multiple national agencies and regulatory bodies” in the US, Asia and Europe “to advance the investigation” on the same.
“We have identified relevant resources and capabilities, and we hope that these can help us expand the treatment options for sick patients of Covid-19,” said Dr. Rajeev Venkayya, head of the Takeda vaccine area.
The company explained, however, that in order to test the efficacy and safety of the medicine, it needs “to have access to plasma from people who have successfully recovered from Covid-19”, and for this they requested the collaboration of national organizations.
Prospective donors “have antibodies against the virus that could potentially mitigate the severity of the disease in patients, and possibly prevent it,” Takeda said.
Isolating and transferring those antibodies to other patients “could help their immune systems to respond to the infection and increase the chances of recovery,” he added.
Likewise, the pharmaceutical company studies the possible effectiveness against the virus of some of its medicines that are already on the market, although this initiative is “in an initial stage”, according to the company.
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