UK biotech rock­ets up on Covid-19 'break­through' for in­haled in­ter­fer­on be­ta — can its small study live up to the boast?

In­ter­fer­on be­ta, a cy­tokine ap­proved and wide­ly used in in­jectable forms, sur­faced very ear­ly on as a po­ten­tial treat­ment for Covid-19. A British biotech now says its in­haled for­mu­la­tion of the drug helped hos­pi­tal­ized pa­tients re­cov­er — and low­ered their risk of do­ing worse.

It’s a small study in­volv­ing on­ly 101 pa­tients and missed some end­points, but Synair­gen said the re­sults could sig­nal a “ma­jor break­through.” If true, that would al­so mark se­ri­ous val­i­da­tion for a drug that As­traZeneca once li­censed but even­tu­al­ly aban­doned as an asth­ma ther­a­py.

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