(Bloomberg) --
AstraZeneca Plc will start testing one of its new cancer medicines to see whether it can quell the excessive immune response Covid-19 triggers in some patients.
Calquence, a treatment for lymphoma, may reduce the severity of respiratory distress by cutting inflammation caused by the new coronavirus, the Cambridge, England-based drugmaker said Tuesday in a statement.
The drug will be tested on hospitalized Covid-19 patients, 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 that Calquence, along with best supportive care, will help reduce the need to place patients on ventilators.
“Unfortunately there are so many in need that we are hoping that we could enroll very, very fast. This is a trial that will enroll in weeks, not in months,” Jose Baselga, Astra's head of cancer research, said in an interview. “We do believe that if we can block the inflammatory response that this virus induces we could save lives.”
Astra put the clinical trial together in less than a week, Baselga said, and the company has 22 sites across the U.S. and Europe ready to participate as soon as they receive regulatory approval.
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.
Astra gained 6.8% in late afternoon London trading, while the FTSE 100 Index fell 1%. Astra had said over the long U.K. holiday weekend that Koselugo, a drug for a rare, painful childhood condition, was approved in the U.S., and that Tagrisso appeared to work so well as adjuvant therapy in certain lung cancer patients a study investigating its effect was stopped early.
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