Candidate: Rebif® (interferon beta-1a)
Type: Interferon beta approved by the FDA for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis.
Status: Merck KGaA said March 19 it donated Rebif to the French Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) following a request for use in a clinical trial. The trial (DisCoVeRy; 2020-000936-23 and NCT04315948)—sponsored by INSERM and launched March 11—is comparing Rebif to AbbVie’s Kaletra, Gilead Sciences’ Remdesivir, and Sanofi’s Plaquenil (hydroxychloroquine) in 3,100 patients.
COVID-19: 200 Candidates and Counting
To navigate through the >200 potential therapeutic and vaccine options for COVID-19, GEN has grouped the candidates into four broad categories based on their developmental and (where applicable) clinical progress:
● FRONT RUNNER – the most promising therapeutics/vaccines based on clinical progress, favorable data or both.
● DEFINITELY MAYBE – earlier phases with promising partners, or more advanced candidates in development that have generated uneven data
● KEEPING AN EYE ON… – interesting technology, attracting notable partners, or both, but preliminary data.
● TOO SOON TO TELL – longshots pending additional experimental and/or clinical data.
GEN has also tagged the most common treatment types:
● ANTIVIRAL
● VAX
● ANTIBODY
● RNA
