French pharmaceutical company Sanofi on Tuesday revealed that the third-phase test of its arthritis drug Kevzara did not meet the required criteria of a U.S. trial of seriously ill COVID-19 patients.
In a media release, the drug manufacturer said the international late-stage test failed to meet its "central endpoint," as gauged by a seven-point meter where 1 means death and 7 means 'not hospitalized.' Sanofi is developing the vaccine with the New York-based biotech group, Regeneron.
No statistically important reduction of hospital stay was recorded in the 420 subjects in countries like Russia, Brazil and Argentina, Sanofi said.
Specifically, the results showed that the time for patients to discharge was cut by only two to three days, which was not satisfactory for patients being administered with Kevzara within the first two weeks of inoculation.
More than a quarter of the patients given the vaccine experienced severe adverse events, the incidence of which led to a 10 percent mortality rate in all three treatment procedures.
Despite the results, Sanofi director for global studies John Reed commended his team for their hard work and for the new lesson they had learned in their efforts to treat COVID-19.
Sanofi is separately collaborating on a potential COVID-19 drug with GlaxoSmithKline and sealed a deal in July with Britain to provide the government 60 million doses. Sanofi is also working with Translate Bio on the development of an RNA-based experimental treatment.
Sanofi is among multiple biotech giants rushing to develop a safe and effective COVID-19 treatment, but health experts are very cautious in stating that one may only be attainable by the end of 2020 for emergency use.
Meanwhile, the virus has so far killed over 800,000 people and caused massive damage to the global economy, triggering a mad scramble to find a drug that will slow down the misery brought about by the disease.
