Faron Pharmaceuticals Oy (AIM: FARN, First North: FARON ) is supporting the World Health Organisation’s (“WHO”) global efforts against COVID-19 by donating supplies of its investigational intravenous interferon beta-1a, Traumakine, for a 2,000 patient trial.
90 countries are involved in the ‘Solidarity Trial’ with the aim to rapidly discover if any of the therapies included can slow the disease and improve survival rates. The four treatment options are being compared against standard of care to assess their relative effectiveness against COVID-19. These are remdesivir; lopinavir/ritonavir; lopinavir/ritonavir with IFN beta-1a; and chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine.
Shares in Faron have open up 3.5% following the news.
Dr. Markku Jalkanen, Faron's CEO, said: "We are pleased that the WHO has included IFN beta-1a on its list of priority drugs to be tested against COVID-19, especially the IV form of the drug, which is what we believe critically ill patients need".
"One of the body's main first lines of defence against viral infection is endogenous IFN-beta production1. We believe Traumakine treatment can further strengthen this natural defence with intravenous dosing of IFN beta-1a to provide optimal exposure to the lung vasculature and increase protection against serious lung complications".
"We are very proud to support the WHO's global effort against COVID-19 by providing a potential therapy to treat acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) that significantly impacts patients with severe COVID-192."