BEIJING • A Chinese laboratory has been developing a drug it believes has the power to bring the corona-virus pandemic to a halt.
The outbreak was first reported in China late last year before spreading across the world, prompting an international race to find treatments and vaccines.
Researchers say a drug being tested by scientists at the prestigious Peking University can not only shorten recovery time for those infected, but also offer short-term immunity from the virus.
Dr Sunney Xie, director of the university's Beijing Advanced Innovation Centre for Genomics, said the drug has been successful at the animal testing stage.
"When we injected neutralising antibodies into infected mice, after five days, the viral load was reduced by a factor of 2,500," he said. "That means this potential drug has a therapeutic effect."
The drug uses neutralising antibodies - produced by the human immune system to prevent the virus from infecting cells - which were isolated from the blood of 60 recovered patients.
A study on the research, published on Sunday in the scientific journal Cell, suggests that using the antibodies provides a potential "cure" and shortens recovery time.
Dr Xie said his team's "expertise is in single-cell genomics rather than immunology or virology. When we realised the single-cell genomic approach can effectively find the neutralising antibody, we were thrilled".
He said the drug should be ready for use later this year and in time for any potential winter outbreak of the virus, which has infected 4.9 million people around the world and killed more than 320,000.
Planning for the clinical trial has started, said Dr Xie, adding that it will be carried out in Australia and other countries since cases have dwindled in China, offering fewer humans for testing.
"The hope is that these neutralised antibodies can become a specialised drug that would stop the pandemic," he said.
China already has five potential coronavirus vaccines at the human trial stage, a health official said last week.
But the World Health Organisation has warned that developing a vaccine could take 12 to 18 months.
Scientists have also pointed to the potential benefits of plasma - a blood fluid - from patients who have recovered and developed antibodies to the virus, enabling the body's defences to attack it.
More than 700 patients have had plasma therapy in China, a process which the authorities said showed "very good therapeutic effects".
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
