A drug is showing promising results in treating critical COVID-19 patients who are suffering from respiratory failure.
Dr. Jonathan Javitt, the CEO Of NeuroRx, said they are encouraged by the results they’ve seen so far in the study of Zyesami.
“So, we’re at the point we’ve got initial results from a 196-person study,” Javitt said in an interview with Patient Daily. “We’re showing an improvement in hospital days and ICU days. We’re still waiting to see if whether we’re also going to show an improvement in the time of recovery from respiratory failure.”
Javitt said in the study, they randomized the 196 patients, giving some Zyesami and some a placebo, and in that they saw a substantial reduction in hospitalization.
“Overall, a five-day shorter hospital stay for people who got Zyesami versus the placebo,” Javitt said.
Javitt said people who were treated with high flow nasal cannula therapy had the largest difference in hospitalization days — having an 11-day difference.
“This is the first drug that’s really been introduced for people with critical COVID-19, for people who have respiratory failure and at the highest risk of dying,” Javitt said. “This is the population where Remdesivir and other drugs didn’t work, and yet we’ve seen a difference in this very population.”
Javitt said there’s still more work to be done.
“We have more work to do in this clinical trial,” Javitt said. “We still need to ascertain that endpoint of recovery from respiratory failure. We have work to do to see if there’s a difference in survival at 60 days, which is when we think survival difference is likely to be seen if it is seen.”
Javitt said they also have started a study of an inhaled form of Zyesami for those who have an earlier stage of COVID19 and they are hoping that will reduce the need for them to go into the ICU with respiratory failure.
"The data provide preliminary support for Zyesami as a drug that may help get critically-ill patients home to their families sooner,” Javitt said.
