Best Posts in Thread: Breakthrough in UK for covid 19 treatment.

From left: Southampton professors Ratko Djukanovic, Donna Davies and Stephen Holgate, founded Synairgen decades ago after finding patients’ defences against viruses could be boosted if a missing protein were replaced.


Three professors at the University of Southampton school of medicine have this week made a “major breakthrough” in the treatment of coronavirus patients and become paper millionaires at the same time.

Almost two decades ago professors Ratko Djukanovic, Stephen Holgate and Donna Davies discovered that people with asthma and chronic lung disease lacked a protein called interferon beta, which helps fight off the common cold. They worked out that patients’ defences against viral infection could be boosted if the missing protein were replaced.

The academics created a company, Synairgen, to turn their discoveries into treatments. It floated on the stock market in 2004, but a deal with AstraZeneca to treat viral infections in asthmatics fell through, and the shares collapsed.

Fast-forward a few years to the coronavirus pandemic, however, and suddenly any potential therapeutics for breathing difficulties were in high demand.

Richard Marsden, Synairgen’s chief executive, said the company had been deeply involved in a trial using the interferon beta drug to help people with chronic bronchitis or emphysema. “[But] when the coronavirus pandemic emerged, even back in January we realised that we might have an important role to play in defence against this virus,” he said. “So we set about getting a clinical trial set up in February and March in anticipation of the virus coming to the UK, [and] it did. The trial was in place when people started to fill the hospitals up.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ovid-19-drug-makes-uk-professors-millionaires