A Hungarian consortium is being set up for the development of pharmacotherapy for the treatment of the disease caused by novel coronavirus, the Ministry for Innovation and Technology informed the Hungarian news agency MTI on Friday evening.
According to the communication, the purpose of the cooperation launched with state support is to create not a vaccine providing acquired immunity, but a therapeutic preparation which neutralises the virus in patients’ systems.
Based on medical literature, their communication reads, a “fusion protein” could be most suitable for treating the disease caused by novel coronavirus. As all pharmaceutical research, the development of the therapeutic protein, too, will be time-consuming, and will convey a number of risks and uncertainties.
The process will have to fully comply with the requirements prescribed by the authorities, they added. Therefore, in the event of a successful development, it could be years before the marketing of the drug could start, they stressed, adding that if, however, the project proves to be successful amidst highly keen international competition, it could lay the ground for the treatment of the coronavirus and similar illnesses in Hungary.
The Ministry for Innovation and Technology supports the development of the drug from available research and development funds.
The consortium is led by the Immunology Department of the Sciences Faculty of Eötvös Lóránd University; its members include local higher education and pharmacology research institutes. Researchers and virology specialists with extensive experience from the Biology Institute of the Sciences Faculty of the University of Pécs and the Szentágothai János Research Centre will also take part in the initial stages of the project.
Corporate members of the consortium include experts from Richter Gedeon Nyrt., a leader in local pharmaceutical research and biotechnology developments – which also has adequate production capacity – and ImmunoGenes Kft., a company engaged in biotechnology developments on the international scene, the communication of the Ministry reads.
(MTI)