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AstraZeneca Plc will start testing one of its new cancer medicines, Calquence, to see whether it can quell the excessive immune response COVID-19 triggers in some patients.
The treatment for lymphoma may lessen the severity of respiratory distress by reducing the inflammation caused by the new coronavirus, the drugmaker said in a statement Tuesday.
Calquence will be tested on hospitalized COVID-19 patients who are hospitalized, including some in intensive care, in a large randomized trial. The first participants will be recruited in the U.S. and several European countries in coming days, Astra said.
The U.K. drugmaker hopes “to demonstrate that adding Calquence to best supportive care reduces the need to place patients on ventilators and improves their chances of survival,” Jose Baselga, who heads cancer research at Astra, said in the statement.
The medicine targets a protein known as BTK that regulates inflammation. In some patients, COVID-19 triggers an extreme immune reaction called a cytokine storm, which can be deadly.
