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0 pointsbrightball5y ago0 comments

From what I have been reading, it’s saved the lives of everybody who it’s been given to so far but I haven’t seen much coverage of it outside of the stock reports.

Just struck me as odd that it’s bogged down in more testing when it seems to have a near perfect record. Blows my mind that India and Brazil aren’t begging for it considering the scope of their current situations.

After following it for the last year, suddenly seeing the Pfizer option out of nowhere just struck me as odd.

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3 comments · 1 top-level

perardi5y ago· 2 in thread

You better have an actual citation for this miracle drug.

Because this sounds a bit like remdesivir, one of the earlier candidates for a savior drug that, once we had more statistical power, didn’t really pan out.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa2007764

Also, if it’s an IV infusion, in a poorer country with a massively strained health care system…well, good luck actually deploying it.

lostcolony5y ago

A little of both really. While no one it's been administered to has died, it's not been administered to many people, and it has been administered without control. Which isn't shocking; that's the first phase of human testing, just see if it seems to actually help, and not create issues itself. They're setting up for tests with a control group next.

https://investors.sorrentotherapeutics.com/news-releases/new...

It could indeed fizzle like Remdesivir. Just, yeah, the data, while promising, is so small it tells us nothing. Hence why the clinical trial process.

perardi5y ago

Thank you for linking to the actual drug, versus the inscrutable parent comment.

And from that link…

“All nine patients…”

…and from the parent…

“it’s saved the lives of everybody who it’s been given to so far”

Well, when N=9, whoop-dee-doo.

Also, while that sure could be promising, color me quite surprised if they can up human-derived stem cells to treat a surge like they are seeing in India.

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