U.S. Hospitals Are Running Out Of A Crucial Covid Drug Amid Delta Surge And Worldwide Shortages

[riversedge]

Source: Forbes



Aug 18, 2021,01:43pm EDT|609 views




The World Health Organization put pressure on Swiss drugmaker Roche to share the technology and know-how needed for others to produce its arthritis drug tocilizumab—one of the only treatments cleared for use in Covid-19 patients—on Wednesday after it warned of global shortages amid soaring hospitalizations caused by the delta variant.




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Roche said it will not be asserting patent rights over the drug in low- and middle-income countries (alongside Chugai, which jointly holds the patents) to give “legal certainty” to other manufacturers and has been scaling up its production to meet demand throughout the pandemic, but warned there will be worldwide shortages for “weeks and months” to come.

The drug is in very short supply in American hospitals after spikes in admissions due to Covid-19 caused by the delta variant, which prompted demand to soar “well over 400% of pre-Covid levels over the last two weeks,” said Genentech, a U.S. subsidiary of Roche.

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Tocilizumab, also known by brand names Actemra and RoActemra, is one of the few drugs approved for use in Covid-19 patients in the U.S., albeit on an emergency use basis. It does not target the virus but instead tackles the inflammation that can occur in severe Covid-19 cases. Its clinical record has been spotty—initial studies showed little benefit but more recent studies have been promising—and though endorsed by the WHO it has not been fully approved for use in Covid-19 patients in any country.


Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/08/18/us-hospitals-are-running-out-of-a-crucial-covid-drug-amid-delta-surge-and-worldwide-shortages/?sh=2850af27ae21

[musette_sf]

1. K&R

[bucolic_frolic]

2. He really did tell us to use bleach, and shine a UV light, *internally* whatever that means

And people still voted for him.

[Skittles]

9. I'm pretty sure for laypeople that means up our ass

I mean, how else would that happen

[MontanaMama]

3. If there's a shortage of this drug

then antivaxxers should not have access to it. Sorry not sorry.

[rollin74]

4. has asymptomatic Gov. Abbott gotten his dose yet?

he is special and above the rules ya know

act fast before supplies run out

[olddad65]

5. Time to stop treating people who refuse to get the vaccine.

[cadoman]

6. what's so special about this anti-inflammatory?

Anyone know?

[jmowreader]

7. As far as treating COVID, or the difficulty in making it?

For the first question: they have found that people with severe COVID have elevated levels of the cytokine compound Interleukin-6 in their systems. You have receptors for this compound in your body, and when it hits you then you can go into what's called a "cytokine storm" and die of that. This anti-inflammatory drug blocks the receptors from picking up the unwanted particle, which keeps it from killing you. I suspect they found out that this drug works out of desperation - you have someone upstairs fixin' to die from IL-6 overload, the doctors figured they had nothing to lose by trying it, and it worked.

As to the difficulty of making it...monoclonal antibodies (anything with the "mab" suffix is a monoclonal antibody) are grown in culture medium. A guy I know who does these sorts of things claims "it's a little like making beer, but you wouldn't want to drink it." And the fun thing is, you can never be quite certain you grew what you were trying to until you finish the fermentation and purify the product - even today, when we know exactly how to make this stuff, a batch could go completely off for reasons no one knows.

[cadoman]

8. thank you! great info! [nt]