Switzerland buys access to potential Covid-19 treatment drug
The drug could also be administered to risk groups and those in front-line jobs, the Health Office said.
Keystone / Alessandro Crinari
The Swiss government has signed an agreement with a Zurich company for priority access to a drug being developed to treat those severely ill with Covid-19.
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A Suíça compra acesso ao potencial medicamento de tratamento para o Covid-19
The deal with the Molecular Partners firm gives Switzerland access to the first 200,000 doses of the medicine, as well as up to three million further doses when requested, the Federal Office for Public Health (FOPH) announcedExternal link on Tuesday.
The deal is worth several million francs, the Keystone-SDA news agency reported.
The immunotherapeutic agent, currently in development, is “comparable to mixtures of antibody therapies that are used to neutralise the virus”, the FOPH wrote. If approved, it would mainly be used to treat people already infected with Covid-19, although it could also be administered to risk groups as a prophylactic.
Clinical trials of the drug are planned for Autumn 2020.
The deal is another leg of the government’s anti-coronavirus strategy. It has also put aside CHF300 million ($329 million) for the procurement of a vaccine, and last week announced the pre-purchase of up to 4.5 million doses of a drug being developed by US firm Moderna.
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It’s the question we all want an answer to: when will there be a vaccine against Covid-19? And how is fair access being negotiated?
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