TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – MARCH 20: Israeli Fire Department crew pull a hose with disinfectants as they sanitize the entrance to Tel Aviv’s Hospital Emergency Department on March 20, 2020 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Number of coronavirus in Israel continues to jump, after over 200 new cases have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images) Two COVID-19 patients who have been treated with the Israeli drug Opaganib have been showing signs of improvement after being on the drug for days.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the patients had moderate-to-severe symptoms of the virus and one of them was in the ICU; after being treated with Opaganib and hydroxychloroquine — the anti-malarial drug that President Donald Trump has touted — both patients saw “significant improvement.” The patient in the ICU was released after taking the medications.
Mark L. Levitt, the director of RedHill Biopharma — the Raleigh, N.C.-based company that developed Opaganib — said in an April 13 statement that the preliminary results of the drug are quite promising.
“Our hope is that the unique mechanism of action of Opaganib, with both anti-viral and anti-inflammatory activity, will help COVID-19 patients by reducing lung inflammation, and thus preventing the disease from progressing to a stage which requires mechanical ventilation,” Levitt said. “Importantly, Opaganib is targeting a critical host factor that the coronavirus is unlikely to evade via mutation in possible future outbreaks of the pandemic.”
Opaganib was approved for use on 160 patients in Italy and has been used on 131 patients in the U.S. The Jewish Chronicle noted that the drug “is not a vaccine, nor is it meant to build immunity or prevent infection.”
Another recent Israeli medication used to treat COVID-19 included Pluristem Therapeutics’ placental expanded cells (PLX) treatment that curbs overactive immune systems from causing pneumonia in COVID-19 patients. The treatment was used on seven patients; on April 7, it was reported that six of the seven patients were on it for a week and four of those six patients saw improvement in their conditions.
Additionally, on April 10, a 29-year-old patient was the first Israeli COVID-19 patient to be treated with Israel’s passive vaccine that injects a patient with antibodies to combat the virus. His condition improved from serious to stable on April 12, according to the Post.
As of this writing, there are 12,501 confirmed cases in Israel and 130 deaths.
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