What I offer might not be useful to many readers here but I get a strong sense of the confusion in the public mind and sometimes on this board about treatments for Covid-19. And how e.g.the much publicised Gilead and MSB relate to each other.
So much is published about possible cures by a wide range of agents ranging from highly sophisticated productions to folk medicine. This then feeds into some misunderstanding of MSB's competitive position vs other companies and treatment modalities.
A very basic misunderstanding relates to just exactly what MSB is trying to treat. Are, for instance, MSB and Gilead (and many others) really in competition. My understanding is definitely not. As follows, using Gilead's strongly promoted and widely publicised Remdesivir as the representative example of a large number of similar candidates:
Remdesivir is anti-viral. It inhibits the replication of Covid-19. It's job is to eradicate the infection. If it were as effective as hoped and safe to use and economical to produce and easy to distribute and administer, if it were perfect, we wouldn't need anything else. No need for MSB's stem cells because they do something entirely different and wouldn't be necessary for this plagueIF Remdesivir had all the qualities described in the previous sentence. But, Remdesivir (or anything else) does not yet offer all those qualities.
There are already over a million identified Covid-19 patients in the world, with the true number of infected almost certainly a multiple of that. And many of these have ARDS and the effects of pulmonary cytokine storms and permanent, disabling fibrotic changes in the lungs. Way past time for any anti-viral like Remdesivir to help.
So have another look at @stokdog's post Potential of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) in rehabilitation after coronavirus COVID-19 and treatment of its complications such as pulmonary fibrosis. Post #:43884085 Note the word "rehabilitation".
The hope is that stem cells repair the possibly fatal and often disabling lung damage of Covid-19 and many other pulmonary pathogens and pathology.
And if you want to penetrate the reference no. 6 in Stokdog's quoted article https://stemcellsportal.com/clinical_trials_lung_disease you find that stem cells might treat a variety of serious fibrotic lung conditions much more extensive than what we fear from Covid-19. Things that have troubled us since long before Covid-19. Things like influenza.
To simplify the above, Gilead (and multiple other anti-viral producers) and MSB are not in competition. Remdesivir tries to eradicate the virus. We hope MSB's stem cells prevent and repair the lung damage of the uncountable victims of Covid-19 and many other viruses and causes of pulmonary fibrosis, victims that the anti-virals could not help for a number of likely reasons.
This extract from @The YankeePost #:43874221 points the way: Pay special attention - it mentions theflu and other viruseson top of ARDS and the inflammatory lung disease due to COVID-19. The Flu? Really the Flu? How big of an annual market is that? Again, I go back to the anti-inflammation properties of Mesoblast's MSCs. Get rid of the inflammation so that the body can fight these infections on its own. For those whose bodies don't have the capacity to fight (like the elderly and people with underlying medical conditions), MSCs can help in fighting ARDS and lung disease.
Anti-virals might prevent viral lung disease but they don't treat the damage. We hope stem cells do. There's plenty of work for them, even if anti-virals do their job.
I would not be at all offended if a better informed person revised anything written above. It is important not to confuse or mislead people.
(20min delay)