MedinCell Announces Great Success with Capital Raise of 15.6M€ & Use of Proceeds Includes Ivermectin Prophylactic for COVID-19 (France, 2020-06-16)

[-] [deleted] | 1 points | Jun 17 2020 10:51:18

MedinCell keeps not doing anything with ivermectin. It's pretty much been "We're going to start on this" since at least 2020-02-10, over 4 months ago. I'm beginning to doubt that they'll ever deliver.

Even if they get the product out, they need a RCT to evaluate the effectiveness of their gadget, which is inserted into the skin and would secrete ivermectin for 3 months -- to prevent catching covid19. How long does a RCT take, to evaluate a treatment that lasts for 3 months at a time? Will there still be people catching the disease then?

Would there be a big advantage over eating an ivermectin pill once a week?

Discouraging.

What was the company’s initial interest in Ivermectin?

MedinCell was the first biotech company to declare its interest in a commercial ivermectin treatment for COVID-19. TrialSite News reported back in April that the French biotech was interested in initiating studies after its review of the Monash University data in Australia. The company had generated some data revealing that long-acting formulations of Ivermectin could be designed with differing doses using its BEPO® technology.

Back in April, the company also disclosed the need for clinical trials to “confirm the action of Ivermectin on the COVID-19 virus, and the potential effectiveness of long-acting injectable on its prevention and therefore breaking the chain of transmission.” The goal would be to leverage the BEPO® technology to offer a long-acting injectable Ivermectin,” hence offering “a rapidly deployable and affordable solution for the global pandemic.”

What is the company’s latest effort?

The company will use these proceeds to help finance various R&D efforts excluding partnerships; in particular those for which the selection of a formulation candidate, prior to regulatory development (preclinical/clinical), is expected in 2020:

... various things unrelated to ivermectin

Additionally, the funds contribute to the financing of initial costs of the mdc-TTG program, which aims to develop a long-acting injectable formulation of Ivermectin as a preventive treatment for people not infected with COVID-19.

[-] fyodor32768 | 1 points | Jun 19 2020 12:15:22

I'm happy to have as many embers in the fire as possible, but I honestly don't see how they're going to develop and prove the efficacy of their injectable prophylactic product and build it at the necessary scale to be useful as a prophylactic before one of the vaccine candidates are ready. Everything for prophylactic products (testing, safety, manufacturing, distribution) just requires a vastly larger scale than something for treating the ill.

[-] DZinni | 1 points | Jun 27 2020 00:41:16

Safe effective vaccines may be several years away. I would feel much more comfortable taking a prophylactic that has 40 years of medical use and known side effects compared to a vaccine that may accidentally cause ADE. Maybe in the year 2025 I will voluntarily take a COVID19 vaccine, and that will only be if I am lacking natural antibodies.

Building an inject-able ivermectin shouldn't be much of an issue. This is already in wide use as a bovine dewormer. This may be as simple as changing the label.