This Friday, Xavier Nassif, director of the Pasteur Institute in Lille, revealed the hitherto kept secret name of the drug for which a repositioning is being studied to treat patients with Covid-19: it is ‘Octofène, hitherto prescribed against nasopharyngitis. A clinical trial will be launched “within a few weeks”, he promises.
- Octofene was taken off the market in 2005.
- This treatment would make it possible to lower the viral load of infected patients as soon as symptoms appear to avoid a runaway that could lead to severe forms.
- The LVMH group provided aid of 5 million euros to support this research.
The secret is finally revealed. This morning, at the microphone ofEuropean 1, the director of the Pasteur Institute in Lille, Xavier Nassif, has unveiled the name of the repositioned drug which he hopes will be able to reduce the viral load of infected patients and avoid severe forms of Covid-19. This is Octofene, an old drug used against nasopharyngitis. After reviewing more than 2,000 molecules, clofoctol, the molecule used by Octofene, proved to be the most effective against the virus.
A repositioned suppository
The objective of this treatment is to lower the viral load of infected patients as soon as symptoms appear to avoid a runaway that could lead to severe forms. “It alters virus replication in cellsexplained to Why Doctor Terence Beghyn, founding president of Apteeus, a biotech that works in partnership with the Pasteur Institute of Lille. When an infected person develops symptoms, the viral load is very high. As with an antibiotic, the body is helped to fight against the pathogen and therefore the faster the patient’s viral load is reduced, the more effectively the body will be able to fight against this agent.”
Octofene was withdrawn from the market in 2005 after its medical benefit was reviewed by Social Security. The latter felt that the antibiotic, which came in the form of a suppository, lost interest since nasopharyngitis heals itself. In the management of the Covid, the first tests have given results “promising”. Xavier Nassif wishes to launch a clinical trial, which will make it possible to evaluate its effectiveness in contaminated patients “in a few weeks”.
Delay and donations
“Our first results showed a drastic decrease in viral loaddetailed to us Terence Beghyn. The first results have been obtained in animals which are rather faithful models to humans. For the next step, we want to conduct the trial on just under 500 patients.” The research has been delayed, estimated at several months by the director of Apteeus, because of the decision by Capnet, the government agency which studies therapeutic trials carried out in France, not to award the “national priority” label to the study.
The first promising results of this study caused an influx of donations for the Pasteur Institute. The LVMH group notably sent aid of 5 million euros to support this research. “In a spirit of solidarity, we wanted to quickly release the entire amount. It must have been a dreadful and exciting year for our researchers. They are our army. This is also why we wanted to support them”, explained Antoine Arnault, administrator of the group and son of Bernard Arnault.
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