What do we know?

Yesterday’s announcement said that the first patient had been treated, so we know that there were no serious adverse reactions.  This was a critical hurdle, because this was the first time Veyonda had to interact with lungs full of Covid related junk.

There are five cohorts and each would typically include three to six patients.  The first cohort will use 400 mg Veyonda, the next will use 600 mg, and the last three will use 800, 1200 and 1800 mg respectively.  Each patient will receive the same dose level for the duration of their treatment; dose escalation refers to the different cohorts, not to the individual patients.

A Google search shows that the WHO uses a numerical scale to classify Covid patients:

0 Uninfected No clinical evidence of infection
1 Ambulatory No limitation of activities
2 Ambulatory Limitation of activities
3 Hospitalized, mild disease No oxygen therapy
4 Hospitalized, mild disease Oxygen by mask or nasal prongs
5 Hospitalized, severe disease Non invasive ventilation or high-flow oxygen
6 Hospitalized, severe disease Intubation and mechanical ventilation
7 Hospitalized, severe disease Ventilation plus additional organ support
8 Dead

NOXCOVID patients at the start of their treatment will be either category 3 or 4.  It would be unethical to withhold other potentially beneficial treatments before patients reach category 3, so we can assume that patients will be screened while they are still category 1 or 2 and only enter the trial after treatment has failed and they have progressed to category 3 or 4.  Having failed prior treatment, any improvement in their WHO score should be attributable to Veyonda.

I read today that President Trump has been admitted to Water Reed for a few days, which makes me wonder whether he is already category 3 or 4.  I don’t suggest that he would want to try Veyonda, but who knows?