Foreign threat?
The most important news in healthcare: Friday, May 22
Good morning. Today we’re covering politicized coronavirus grants, a new drug that helps out with the side effects of blood cancer treatment, and a bit of advice before you splurge on a pandemic puppy.
Nobel laureates protest as government cuts coronavirus research funding in China
The pulse:
In a letter written to top public health officials, 77 Nobel laureates asked for an investigation into the cancellation of a $3 million federal grant to EcoHealth Alliance, a global nonprofit that researches bat coronaviruses in China.
Why was the grant cancelled?
The Nobel laureates have written that the grant was canceled just “days after President Trump responded to a question from a reporter who erroneously claimed that the grant awarded millions of dollars to investigators in Wuhan.”
The grant, in fact, had awarded money to EcoHealth, which is HQ’ed in New York and studies animal viruses around the world. The group was working with the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study the origins of the coronavirus. Days after the press conference, however, in which the reporter questioned US support of Chinese research EcoHealth received an email from the NIH saying that its $3 million grant had been canceled.
What has been the reaction?
The Nobel laureates wrote their letter to Alex Azar, secretary of the Department for Health and Human Services, and Francis Collins, director of the NIH. In the letter they call the decision “preposterous” and requested a “thorough review…to rectify the injustices that may have been committed in revoking [the grant].”
Outrage hasn’t been limited to the letter: Harold Varmus, a former NIH director, said that the cancellation is “an outrageous abuse of political power to control the way science works.”
Bottom line it for me.
The political fuel behind research dollars makes it a challenging time for American scientists to be associated with China.
Source: Stat News.
New drug demonstrates ability to treat graft-versus-host disease
The pulse:
Nearly 75% of patients suffering from chronic graft-versus-host disease experienced improvements after taking KD025, a new drug made by New York-based biotech Kadmon Holdings.
What is graft-versus-host disease?
Many patients with blood cancer will receive a bone marrow transplant, in which they receive healthy cells from a donor to help replace and fight off the cancerous cells. In as many as half of these patients, however, the donated cells view the patient’s body as foreign and start attacking tissues and organs. This attack is called graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), and it can cause a variety of ailments: mouth sores, skin rashes, immobile joints, and damaged organs.
Chronic GVHD, which is GVHD that has persisted despite multiple attempts to treat it, affects 7,000 – 10,000 patients per year.
What is KD025 and how well does it work?
KD025 is a tiny molecule that infiltrates and jams up the ROCK pathway, which normally triggers, in the body, a series of immune responses that can ultimately trigger GVHD. The drug eases symptoms in close to ¾ of patients who have chronic GVHD.
The drug does not cure GVHD, however: only four out of the 132 tested patients experienced a “complete response” to the drug.
What’s next for KD025?
Kadmon plans to submit KD025 to the FDA for review in October and get it on the market in 2021.
Bottom line it for me.
Patients suffering from the side effects of blood cancer treatment have a new option, but are still far from a cure.
Rapidfire:
Anthony Fauci, official Director of All Things COVID Related, has said that he is “cautiously optimistic” about early results on Moderna’s new vaccine and that the NIAID will publish full data soon. His approval lends much-needed backing to the vaccine, which has received significant scrutiny in the past few days.
Big-ticket venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz has invested $30 million into Octant Bio, a company that genetically engineers DNA to flag how different cells respond to different chemicals. Their work has the potential to significantly accelerate drug discovery.
Thinking of getting a pandemic puppy? The WSJ has you covered. Pro-tip: “my dog needs a walk” is a perfectly acceptable excuse for leaving the Zoom five minutes early.