The vaccination is currently considered a beacon of hope in the fight against Corona. Now a German pharmaceutical company is said to have found a possible drug against the virus.
Braunschweig – Vaccinations are currently the focus of the fight against the coronavirus *. Above all, they should ensure that a disease with Covid-19 is comparatively mild. Now there is hope, however, that there is another way: After the new drug from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer *, there will soon be another drug against the coronavirus, reports RUHR24 *.
| illness | Covid-19, coronavirus disease |
| virus | SARS-CoV-2 |
| Available vaccines | Biontech / Pfizer, Astrazeneca, Johnson & Johnson and others |
Corona drug from Germany: Corat Therapeutics with its own Covid-19 active ingredient
The Braunschweig company Corat Therapeutics is currently researching such a drug. The NDR reports. The pharmaceutical company, which was founded especially for the Covid-19 active ingredient, is said to have started clinical tests a few days ago. In this phase of development, it is examined how safe, tolerable and effective the new active ingredient actually is.
To find out, a total of 45 patients infected with the coronavirus will receive the new drug from Corat Therapeutics. It currently still bears the development name COR-101. If the clinical study is successful, COR-101 should be able to help moderately to seriously ill corona patients.
But until it is clear whether the new active ingredient has potential, it will take at least until summer. Only then does the team at the pharmaceutical company expect the first results. It may therefore take some time before the drug is actually on the market if the results are correct. André Frenzel from Corat Therapeutics is of the opinion that the company could apply for emergency approval at the end of 2021 (all current news about the coronavirus in the NRW ticker * on RUHR24).
Drug against corona: According to Pfizer – German company will submit emergency approval application in 2021
COR-101 is said to work against the coronavirus through human antibodies, as these block the binding sites of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. As a result, the virus can no longer attach itself to the human cell. Such antibodies are generated in a test tube using biotechnological methods. Normally, the body can produce these itself in the event of an infection or a vaccination.
Occasionally, especially in older people, it has happened that the vaccine does not work and no antibodies are formed. “Our antibody COR-101 should help here. Since COR-101 permanently occupies the essential contact point between the virus and our body, the virus can no longer use its spike proteins to infect us, ”explains Dr. Andreas Herrmann, Managing Director of Corat Therapeutics (more news about Corona in NRW * at RUHR24).
Instead of vaccination: Coronavirus drug is especially important for the elderly
Active ingredients that are supposed to work on the same principle have so far shown strong side effects. The drug “avoids these side effects through a different, specially adapted molecular design”, according to a press release from the Technical University of Braunschweig.
In addition to the preparations from Corat Therapeutics and Pfizer, there are currently around 400 other substances that are being researched. All of them should potentially help against a severe course of a coronavirus infection. This also includes the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche and the US company Atea Pharmaceuticals, who are working together on a drug against corona. The tablet, called AT-527, is also supposed to protect against severe disease and, according to Roche, will be on the market in the fall of this year. However, most studies on the active ingredients so far have mostly yielded negative results.
Video: Pfizer announces pill against Corona
Initially, one should not put too much hope into the possible drugs. Currently there are “only two effective means against the pandemic: distance and vaccination”, says Professor Gernot Marx, President of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI). “Only apparently nobody wants to hear that anymore.” * RUHR24 is part of the IPPEN.MEDIA editorial network.
