Octagenix

Artemisinin and COVID-19 Study

We estimated that a vaccine could well be freely available after March 2021, but we cannot wait for the virus to claim thousands’ more lives, therefore we are in the process of setting-up a clinical study with Artemisinin to save lives of the infected COVID-19 patients.

Based on the anti-Inflammatory and immunoregulatory properties of Artemisinin, our scientists and clinical study co-ordinators have registered the first clinical trials with Artemisinin in the infected COVID-19 population, with the scope of saving thousands of lives.

 
We believe a drug such as Artemisinin, with a proven anti-viral track record, with an anti-Inflammatory and immunoregulatory effect, can be beneficial to COVID-19 patients. As yet, combatting Covid-19 with existing anti-viral drugs have been overlooked in favour of vaccines. This worrying trend leaves us with no way of treating infected Covid-19 patients as the mortality rates are rising.
Artemisinin has proven to be a very effective anti-inflammatory and immunoregulatory drug with significantly lower toxicity levels and offers an incredible opportunity to reduce the suffering of Covid-19 patients in addition to reducing transmissibility (Balint, 2001).

At OctaGenix®, our early work with Artemether has shown efficacy in Lyme Disease, demonstrating effectiveness in killing Babesia parasites. The reported toxicity levels of Artemether are significantly low, and the positive therapeutic outcomes outweigh the sequalae and justify exploring further the extraordinary life-saving potential of this compound in Covid-19.

In the last decades Artemisinin derivatives have been successfully used for the treatment of other globally prominent pathologies, such as viral infections, cancer, various autoimmune diseases and other non-malarial infectious diseases.
 
Antimalarial drugs deserve special attention due to the lack of effective antiviral drugs against new emerging viruses, for example, the current pandemic of Coronavirus (COVID-19), we also know that “antimalarials” have been tried and tested against; HIV, dengue virus, chikungunya virus, Ebola virus, and also in classic infections due to drug-resistant viral strains (i.e., human cytomegalovirus) with some favourable results and a lower degree of side effects.

Artemisinin has an endoperoxide ring, which appears to sequester the iron in heam, thus denying iron to the organism and hence, in theory, will also be effective in killing COVID-19 (Wang et al., 2010). A widespread introduction of Artemisinin derivatives has demonstrated the ability to reduce transmission of malaria showing promise in preventing the spread of multidrug resistance (Price et al., 1996).