Safety of TY027, a Treatment for COVID-19, in Humans

The emergence and rapid spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) since December 2019 across 188 countries globally has become a major public health crisis. COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on the 11th March 2020. To date, more than 14,000,000 cases and 600,000 deaths have been reported. COVID-19 is an acute respiratory disease caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus from the Betacoronavirus genus, just like SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. SARS-CoV-2 is primarily transmitted person-to-person through respiratory droplets or close contact. Fomite transmission has also been implicated as a transmission route. Common respiratory symptoms such as fever, sore throat, cough and shortness of breath, may appear 2 - 14 days after exposure. About 20% of infected cases progress to severe disease resulting in an estimated 2 - 5% mortality reported. With the unrelenting increase in cases being reported worldwide, there is thus an urgent need for therapeutics to be developed and used to disrupt the ongoing pandemic. To date, there is no specific proven antiviral treatment for COVID-19. Supportive care is recommended for symptom relief and for severe cases, organ support is critical for optimal outcome. Numerous vaccine candidates against SARS-CoV-2 are under development and a couple have entered Phase 1 clinical trials. Remdesivir, a nucleotide analog, developed by Gilead Sciences as a treatment for Ebola virus disease is currently being repurposed and undergoing multiple clinical trials to evaluate safety and efficacy in COVID-19 patients. In a preliminary study, convalescent plasma containing neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 has also been experimentally administered in critically ill COVID-19 patients with promising results. Donor plasma used was rich in virus specific IgG and IgM antibodies as determined by ELISA. Within days of convalescent plasma treatment, patients showed decrease in viral load (via qRT-PCR), as well as improved