By Laurent P. Posted January 12, 2021 at 7:36 p.m. Updated January 12, 2021 at 7:38 p.m.
What if a treatment for the coronavirus already exists? Researchers from the Institut Pasteur de Lille discovered in September 2020 the existence of a molecule potentially active against the virus, and which in all likelihood does not involve side effects. Could it be Clofoctol, a drug treating benign respiratory ailments? Where are we in clinical trials? We take stock.
The search for a treatment against the coronavirus fast forward! Researchers fromPasteur Institute of Lille announced Tuesday, September 29, 2020 at the microphone of our colleagues from RTL have potentially discovered a treatment for Covid-19, a molecule more precisely, which seems to be active against the virus. A treatment already used on the European continent for other uses, and which could be produced on a larger scale for marketing in 2021, after validation by the higher authorities concerned.
What is this treatment? According to the director of the Institute, Xavier Nassif, it is a molecule “a little confidential“, discovery”by a repositioning technique, that is to say that we take the drugs found in pharmacies and we see if, by a miracle, there is not a molecule that could be effective on this virus while ‘it was not designed for that“, he explains.”We want to keep the name of the drug secret to be able to avoid the parallel market, prescriptions without control and control of stocks.“, emphasizes a researcher.
According to our colleagues fromAEF Infos, it would be the Clofoctol, an antibiotic effective against benign respiratory diseases, administered in the form of a suppository and marketed in France between 1978 and 2005 under the name ofOctofene. Information that thePastor Institute did not wish to confirm or deny in order to avoid, if necessary, the shortage of stock and the inability to continue its clinical trials.
How does it work ? There too, Xavier Nassif gives an answer: “We used this product which is not completely widespread. The active principle comes to concentrate in the airways, the lungs, where the virus is at the beginning of the disease“, he explains. And to continue:”In all the tests carried out, this molecule inhibits the replication of the virus. […] It is a molecule which is used very little and which does not present any particular problems in terms of side effects. So it could be administered without risk“.
Where are we in clinical trials? After being tested on infected human cells, with some success, this mystery treatment has been the subject of a preclinical study in October 2020 on monkeys. As for clinical trials on humans, these should be held, according to Benoît Deprez, “double-blind, placebo-controlled, in which neither doctors nor patients know whether they are using the medicine or a placebo that does not contain the active substance“, as reported last December by our colleagues from Science and the Future. Regarding the results, if all goes well and the health authorities closely follow the progress of the work, they should arrive during the month of May 2021.
When will it be marketed? According to the director ofPasteur Institute of Lille, from the spring 2021 : “We do the design of this test, then we will ask for the necessary authorizations, but it will take a while“, he evokes. And to continue:”We also wonder who this molecule is going to be intended for, people who are not very sick, asymptomatic carriers so that they secrete the virus for a shorter time, or even very sick people. If we do clinical trials quickly, we aim for the end of winter 2021“.
Excellent news, therefore, and a clinical trial that should be followed closely. As a reminder, for the moment, there is no effective, proven and authorized antiviral treatment against coronavirus.
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