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AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 Taskforce Starts With Calquence Trial

BTK Inhibitor Has Shown Results In Advanced COVID-19 Lung Disease

 
• By Sten Stovall

AstraZeneca will launch a global clinical trial for its blood cancer drug Calquence because it showed early respiratory promise in later-stage COVID-19 patients, those in intensive care units and on ventilators.

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Watch This Space: AstraZeneca has established a COVID-19 taskforce • Source: Shutterstock

Encouraged by early clinical evidence,AstraZeneca PLC now plans a randomized, global clinical trial to test whether the BTK inhibitor Calquence (acalabrutinib) can be used to treat the exaggerated and deadly immune response, or so-called cytokine storm, linked with COVID-19 infection in severely ill patients.

Called CALAVI, the study has been designed in record time and is based on early clinical data with Calquence showing...

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