Ascletis Pharma, a Hangzhou biopharma, filed with China’s NMPA to include a combination of two antiretroviral HIV treatments in the emergency channel for the Wuhan coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Ascletis emphasizes that it has not tested the fixed dose combination of ritonavir-ASC09 in the new virus, but cited the structural similarities between HIV and 2019-nCoV proteases. In addition, an AbbVie combination of ritonavir with lopinavir, Kaletra, showed efficacy against SARS, another coronavirus, and helped a patient with 2019-nCoV. In a China Phase IIa trial, ASC09 significantly lowered HIV viral loads.
Source: China Biotoday
