Academic researchers want to repurpose drugs for #LongCOVID. Manufacturers aren’t supplying them. 🧵 #chemsky #scisky #biosky - ThreadSky

rowanwalrath.bsky.social • 3 days ago

Academic researchers want to repurpose drugs for #LongCOVID.

Manufacturers aren’t supplying them. 🧵

#chemsky #scisky #biosky

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benzenes.bsky.social•3 days ago

It's always sad to hear stories like this. Given how far Chemical Engineering has come in making these life-changing drugs available in mass, it's painful to see other barriers being put in place.

rowanwalrath.bsky.social•3 days ago

Several scientists who have sought to repurpose drugs for long COVID have been stymied by refusals from the pharmaceutical companies that make them. NIH neurologist Avindra Nath wanted to trial Merck's Keytruda and BMS' Opdualag, believing they could help with suspected T-cell exhaustion.

rowanwalrath.bsky.social•3 days ago

Northwestern University neurologist Igor Koralnik wanted to test Eli Lilly's Emgality (galcanezumab) to treat headache in people with long COVID. Nancy Klimas at Nova Southeastern University reached out to Lilly, Regeneron, and others about monoclonal antibodies.

rowanwalrath.bsky.social•3 days ago

None of these efforts moved forward, because the pharmaceutical companies were unwilling or unable to donate drugs and placebo for the proposed trials.

rowanwalrath.bsky.social•3 days ago

In all cases, these studies would have been considered investigator-sponsored research, meaning that the researcher—not the drugmaker—would have funded salaries of clinicians and analysts, any laboratory equipment, and fees paid to study participants.

rowanwalrath.bsky.social•3 days ago

The cost to the pharmaceutical companies would come down to the cost of the drug.

rowanwalrath.bsky.social•3 days ago

It's not clear why these manufacturers have balked at supplying drugs for these trials. In some cases, the drugmakers cite the lack of a concrete biomarker—a biological metric, like a blood test—that could help researchers more definitively measure whether their drugs were helping clinically.

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