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Austrian COVID-19 patients with severe lung dysfunction for the first time have a treatment option within a compassionate use program for Apeptico’s solnatide.
The more COVID-19 patients reach advanced disease stages according to the eight-level WHO disease scale, the more important it becomes to treat life-threatening respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) or pulmonary edema. Respiratory disease specialist Apeptico Forschung und Entwicklung GmbH has now received compassionate use approval from the Austrian Federal Office for Safety in Health Care for its lead candidate solnatide for the treatment of this COVID-19 patient population. The Phase II candidate drug for the treatment of ARDS and pulmonary edema is designed to help the up to 20% of hospitalized patients who develop life-threatening pulmonary disorders such as ARDS and to counteract the formation of pulmonary edema. The observed mortality rate for ARDS is between 16% and 60%.
According to Bernhard Fischer, Managing Director of Vienna-based Apeptico, “this is the first compassionate use approval of an innovative drug from Austria for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2-induced acute pulmonary dysfunction (ARDS) in mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients”, who have reached disease stage 6 and 7 on the WHO disease scale. “Solnatide will be used to shorten the time of mechanical ventilation,” explained Fischer. Lung specialists consider this to be urgently necessary, as intubation and artificial respiration pose considerable health risks.
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