Thursday, March 19, 2020



The first Covid-19 vaccine in China is expected to be ready for clinical trials by the end of April, according to Xu Nanping, China’s vice-minister of science and technology. Inovio Pharmaceuticals plans to begin clinical trials on a coronavirus vaccine in April this year.
Health officials from WHO have noted that Gilead’s remdesivir has demonstrated efficacy in treating the coronavirus infection.

Favipiravir : First approved drug for Coronavirus

The National Medical Products Administration of China has approved the use of Favilavir, an anti-viral drug, as a treatment for coronavirus. The drug has reportedly shown efficacy in treating the disease with minimal side effects in a clinical trial involving 70 patients. The clinical trial is being conducted in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

The novel coronavirus drugs in various stages of development globally are listed below:

Remdesivir:

An ebola drug developed by Gilead Sciences that was found to be ineffective is now being tested in two phase III randomized clinical trials in Asian countries. 
The trials are being performed on 761 patients in a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind study at multiple hospitals in Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak. The results from the trials are expected to be available over the next few weeks.
According to a report by The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), remdesivir, when administered to a coronavirus patient in the US, appeared to have improved the clinical condition.

Actemra by Roche to treat coronavirus-related complications:

China approved the use of Roche’s Actemra for the treatment of severe complications related to coronavirus. Drugs like Actemra have the ability to prevent cytokine storms or overreaction of the immune system, which is considered as the main reason behind organ failure leading to death in some coronavirus patients.
Actemra is also being evaluated in a clinical trial in China, which is expected to enroll 188 coronavirus patients. The clinical trial is expected to be conducted until May 10.

Friday, March 13, 2020

Solubility as Physicochemical parameter in Drug design


The solubility of a drug both in water and lipids is an important factor in its effectiveness as
a therapeutic agent and in the design of its dosage form For example, the absorption of drugs from the GI tract into the circulatory system by passive diffusion depends on them being water soluble. Moreover, the passage of drugs through other membranes will also depend on them having the correct balance of water and lipid solubilities. 

A drug’s distribution through the circulatory system, and hence its action, will also depend to some extent on it having a reasonable water solubility. In addition, to be effective, most drugs have to be administered in dosage forms that are water-soluble.

A drug’s solubility depends on both the chemical structure of the compound and the nature of the solvent. Where a compound can exist in different polymorphic forms its solubility will also depend on its polymorphic form. Since most drugs are administered at room temperature (25ºC) and the body’s temperature is 37ºC, the solubility of drugs is usually measured and recorded at these temperatures. However, the correlation between the activities of a series of drugs with similar structures and their solubilities in water is usually poor. This indicates that there are other factors playing  important roles in controlling drug activity.

A drug’s solubility and behavior in water is particularly important since the cells in our bodies normally contain about 65 per cent water. In living matter water acts as an inert solvent, a dispersing medium for colloidal solutions and a nucleophilic reagent in numerous biological reactions. Furthermore, hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions in water influence the conformations of biological macromolecules, which in turn affect their biological behavior. 

Water solubility also makes drug toxicity testing, bioavailability evaluation and clinical application easier. As a result, it is necessary to assess the water solubility of drug candidates and, if required, design a reasonable degree of water solubility into their structures in an early point in their development.

The first Covid-19 vaccine in China is expected to be ready for clinical trials by the end of April, according to Xu Nanping, China’s vi...