3 ms·
You seriously think a new drug will be ready to treat this within a few months?
by cglace 7y ago
You seriously think a new drug will be ready to treat this within a few months?
- thu2111 7y agoIt could be. I did my own research on that a couple of weeks ago. If you look at the latencies involved with developing antibodies they're not that high, especially if you get lucky and are willing to throw money around. Humanity is right at the start of the whole protein design revolution - I don't think our regulatory infrastructure is set up for it yet. But where there's a will ...
- roenxi 7y agoDepends what standard you hold 'ready' to. There are a bunch of things that by rights should help treat COVID-19, the clinical trials are due to start finishing in late March through to May and - depending on the drug - production might be fast or slow. I've read patchy reports (eg, https://www.hngn.com/articles/228138/20200223/coronavirus-cure-chloroquine-confirmed-effective.htm https://www.hngn.com/articles/228138/20200223/coronavirus-cu...) that the Chinese have started marking out specific drugs as effective for treatment. And of course Remdesivir is getting positive sounding press although I havn't seen any actual data. It isn't really a question of whether we have something that works against COVID-19 because we surely do. The tricky part is figuring out what so it can be systematically delivered, and working out manufacturing. With a bit of luck (eg, chloroquine working out) the risk profile of the pandemic looks very different.