RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian scientists will be testing a drug in 500 patients, with virtually no side effects, 94 percent effective in cells infected with the new coronavirus, with a result in no more than one month.
The news was released on Wednesday, April 15th, by the Minister of Science, Technology, Innovation, and Communications, Marcos Pontes. However, experts are wary of what they refer to as “emotional scam”.
According to the Minister, the country is also developing artificial intelligence equipment to test people suspected of Covid-19 infection. The result takes one minute and the test uses national reagents.
“Vaccines take longer than drug repositioning, but we are working with a double vaccine, both for Influenza and Covid,” he said. “Only science can fight the virus,” Pontes stressed.
The Minister did not release the name of the anti-coronavirus drug in order to avoid a “run” on purchases. According to Marcelo Morales, Secretary of Policies for Training and Strategic Actions of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications (MCTIC), the drug is widely available in the market.
“We will have in our hands in mid-May, at the latest, the solution for a treatment, with a medicine available even in pediatric formulation, developed in Brazil,” Pontes said.
The drug will be tested in 500 patients in seven hospitals, five in Rio de Janeiro, one in São Paulo and another in Brasília. The drug will be administered daily, for a period of five days, with nine more days of observation.
“In 14 days, we will be able to determine if the effects on patients will be the same as those already proven in infected cells,” the Minister said. The clinical trial will be conducted with patients who are hospitalized for follow-up of symptoms and viral load.
According to the MCTIC, the protocol will be a randomized double-blind, that is, neither doctors nor patients will know who is receiving the drug and who is receiving placebos. “I want to thank the Ministry of Health’s ethics committee, which approved the clinical trial protocol. Over the next few weeks we will have the results,” Pontes said.
Repercussion
According to infectologist Julival Ribeiro, it is very odd that the Ministry says it has an alternative with a 94 percent effectiveness and does not disclose the name of the drug or molecule. “Everyone is studying chloroquine or ivermectin (a vermifuge and anti-parasitic). But clinical studies are necessary. There is a sequence that must be respected. The strangest thing is not to reveal which molecule it is,” he said.
The Minister’s argument for not disclosing the name to avoid rushing to pharmacies is unjustified, according to the specialist. “The ANVISA could do what it did with chloroquine and allow it to be sold exclusively with a special prescription. You can’t say it’s 94 percent effective without a clinical trial,” he said.
He also does not believe in the possibility of a double vaccine, for Influenza and Covid-19. “Influenza vaccine is one thing, and for Covid-19 it is quite another,” he said.
Professor José David Urbaez, SBI’s scientific director for the Federal District, said the MCTIC announcement is irresponsible. “It’s a diabolical construction to justify a measure that will kill many people, which is to relax isolation. In Brazil, if the virus spreads we will have health care and mortuary collapse. There will be no turning back”, he warned.
The expert lamented that the government is promoting what he referred to as emotional scam. “It’s a moment of huge collective vulnerability. And the government is promoting fake news by announcing a miracle drug. There is rigor in science. The Jama (Journal of America Medical Association) has reviewed all the drugs and clinical trials in progress and by the end of that research, there was no evidence to recommend any treatment,” he said.
According to Urbaez, the unnamed drug may be ivermectin. “But it is necessary to develop a protocol, with informed consent for participation, follow-up time, then analysis and publication in a scientific journal, which is valuable as scientific. The process is long, as it occurs elsewhere in the world,” he said.
Regarding the vaccines, the professor also found the announcement of MCTIC premature. “Research on the dengue vaccine is 40 years old and the one released was a disaster. This is not the way to finding a vaccine,” he said.
Details
According to the MCTIC, tests were carried out using drugs currently on the market in pharmacies to find if there are any able to fight the disease.
The strategy, called drug repositioning, is adopted by a task force comprised of 40 scientists from the National Biosciences Laboratory (LNBio), which is part of the National Center for Energy and Materials Research (CNPEM), the Ministry’s social organization.
Two thousand drugs were tested in order to detect drugs composed of molecules able to inhibit proteins essential for viral replication.
Using advanced technology such as molecular and structural biology, scientific computing, chemoinformatics, and artificial intelligence, the researchers identified six promising molecules that went for in vitro testing with cells infected with SARS-CoV-2.
Out of these six drugs researched, scientists at CNPEM/MCTIC found that two of them significantly reduced viral replication in cells. The most promising drug showed 94 percent efficacy in trials with infected cells.
On Tuesday, April 14th, the MCTIC-funded clinical trial was granted authorization by the National Research Ethics Commission (CONEP) to conduct the final stage of the trials: clinical trials in patients infected with the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), expected to begin in the coming weeks.
Source: Correio Braziliense