Russian science makes a new anti-Covid breakthrough
Specialists from the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences have completed preclinical trials of a drug based on antibodies that neutralize the new type of coronavirus.
The director of the institute, academician Alexander Gabibov, spoke about this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, in an interview with Izvestia.
“We are talking about a drug that affects the immune component. One of the most well-known and tested therapies in this case is the transfusion of serum [blood] from COVID-19 survivors. The person has developed a good pool of neutralizing antibodies, which can help another patient's body fight the disease. However, there is little plasma; there is not enough for everyone. This leads to a global conclusion: it is necessary to create artificial antibodies with variable domains that will bind the virus,” says Gabibov.
He said that Russian specialists, together with Chinese and American colleagues, managed to obtain antibodies from the first patients and make artificial analogues using genetic engineering technologies.
“An article about this will soon be published in the journal Nature,” the Russian scientist noted.
He also said when human trials will begin.
“Now our Chinese colleagues have received the first industrial line of antibodies. The Russian company Pharmsintez paid for this part of the development. In China, a full cycle of preclinical trials on a mouse model and monkeys and the first stage of clinical trials were completed. And now this industrial line of antibodies is transferred to us (as the team that took part in this fundamental development) with the right to exclusive production of the drug on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Production is being established at our institute. We are developing the drug for the second and third stages of clinical trials, which will take place in our country,” says the academician.
It is planned that permission to conduct clinical trials will be received in March.
“They will take place in 15 clinical centers in Moscow and St. Petersburg and can be completed in June-July. There is every reason to believe that the drug will be ready for release in the summer,” the publication’s interlocutor clarified.
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