Donald Trump’s drugs “to help Boris Johnson” are not tested for coronavirus | US news

None of the treatments that the four US engineering pharmaceutical companies, according to Donald Trump, could help Boris Johnson recover from Covid-19 are clinically tested for the coronavirus or available on the market, he emerged.

Trump said he spoke to four companies working with the U.S. government on Monday and asked two of them to contact London immediately to help with the Prime Minister’s treatment.

Downing Street has indicated that it does not wish to accept Trumps’ offer of investigational drugs.

However, one of the companies, Gilead, which manufactured the drug Remdesivir used in Ebola treatment trials, confirmed that the president had spoken to its chief executive. But he said his therapeutic drug had not yet been clinically tested, a process that was underway.

Yesterday he called our CEO, but we can’t go any further, said a spokesperson.

Trump has hinted that drugs that could help the Prime Minister are on their way to St Thomas Hospital in London, where Johnson is still in intensive care.

I have spoken to four of them today and they speak a language that most people do not understand, but I understand something therapeutic and really advanced therapy and they have already arrived in London, their office London has everything they need and we will see if we can be of help.

Weve contacted all of Boriss’ doctors and can see what’s going to happen, but they are ready to go, he said.

But on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Gileads London headquarters said his drug, Remdesivir, had not yet been tested and would only be available if the patient’s doctor specifically asked for it.

It was developed over 10 years ago after a decade of research into hepatitis C and the respiratory syncytial virus.

Researchers have explored the compound for multiple potential uses to help meet urgent and unmet medical needs around the world, including Ebola, Sars, Marburg, Mers and most recently Covid-19.

Laboratory tests for its use as a treatment for Sars were successful in 2014, but as the virus died down, clinical trials could not take place.

It is essential that we do these clinical trials [for Covid-19] and show its effectiveness. It would be irresponsible to distribute it widely, the company said.

He made it available to 1,700 people on a compassionate basis, but only when a doctor asked for a named patient.

The company said yesterday he planned to give 1.5 million doses of Remdesivir to ongoing clinical trials in the hope that it can produce enough for a million courses of treatment by the end of the year.

The White House has confirmed that the president spoke to three other companies yesterday Genentech, Amgen and Regeneron, but none of their products are available, even with compassion.

California biotech company Amgen last week announced that it is partnering with Seattle-based Adaptive Biotechnologies to try to identify virus-neutralizing antibodies that would help them design a treatment, but this investigation is only to start. DeCode Genetics, an Iceland-based subsidiary of Amgen, will provide genetic information on patients who have recovered from Covid-19.

Genentech, a subsidiary of the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche which is recognized for the success of tests in Germany, is at an advanced stage of investigation on an arthritis drug Actemra as a treatment for coronavirus.

The first patients enrolled in a phase III trial in France and Spain. Participants must have severe Covid-19 cases marked by pneumonia and must be hospitalized. The first results are expected this summer, according to Reuters.

The company has partnered with Sanofi in France to extend a trial of its Kevzara rheumatoid arthritis drug to patients outside the United States where trials have just started. He is now recruiting patients in Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Canada and Russia. The US trials started last week.

Trumps says an antimalarial drug could be used to treat the coronavirus has already been reduced.