Some of this work has already arrived, such as Helix’s COVID-19 test, which detects the coronavirus in thousands of samples collected at San Diego County test sites. Other efforts are several months away, including CalciMedica’s anti-inflammatory drug meant to help keep COVID-19 patients off ventilators; the biotech believes the treatment could be approved by May or June 2021, depending on data from ongoing trials.

Celyad Oncology is a clinical-stage biotechnology company centered on the development of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies for the treatment of cancer. This approach involves engineering patient or donor T cells to display a CAR that targets the immune cells to cancer cells via antigen–receptor binding.

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced 24-week liver biopsy results in patients from an open-label phase 2 clinical study of ARO-AAT, a second-generation investigational RNA interference therapeutic intended for treatment of a liver disease associated with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.

Craig Fraser, CEO and President, Windtree Therapeutics talks about acute heart failure, the number one reason for hospitalization in people over 65 and the fact that there has been little innovation in trying to improve cardiac function. Developing a novel dual action drug called istaroxime, Windtree is addressing both parts of the cycles of the heart – increasing blood pressure and also lowering the heart rate. After using a diuretic, administration of ista is producing positive data for better function of the heart.

Valneva SE, a vaccine specialist created by a merger in 2013, is the only drugmaker in the U.S. and Europe developing an inactivated shot against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The approach uses a sample of the coronavirus that has been killed to stimulate an immune response without causing the disease. The approach has been used for decades with inoculations for polio and hepatitis A.

Sudarshan Hebbar, CMO of CalciMedica, reveals how the FDA, ethics committees, and safety consortia have responded to helping to advance the application of novel therapeutics towards COVID.

COVID-19 resembles an endothelial disease and treating it with anti-inflammatory agents, similarly to other endothelial diseases, may be appropriate, according to a viewpoint published in the European Heart Journal.