Johnson + Johnson reported on Monday that its HIV drug darunavir is not an effective treatment against coronavirus.
The company did say it is testing various treatments for COVID-19 using some of its antiviral compounds, including darunavir.
The statement comes amid reports from around the world of limited success with HIV medicines against the virus, specifically two uses of lopinavir/ritonavir in Spain and in India.
Wrote Johnson + Johnson: “Considering the large public health and humanitarian implications, we are committed to global efforts to care for those affected, contain the current outbreak and develop measures to tackle future outbreaks. We support broad access to information, and we strongly believe that the development of evidence-based intervention guidelines for COVID-19 is critical. HIV protease inhibitors are being considered as therapeutic options for COVID-19. We believe this use is based on limited, unpublished virologic and clinical data in the treatment of patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus.”
“Our first commitment is to the HIV patients who rely on darunavir,” they added. ‘”Darunavir (DRV) is a protease inhibitor marketed by Janssen. It is currently only approved for use with a “boosting” agent, and in combination use with other antiretrovirals, for the treatment of HIV-1. Of note, DRV should not be administered without a boosting agent (ritonavir or cobicistat) as previous studies of unboosted DRV resulted in subtherapeutic drug levels and was associated with a higher rate of adverse events.”
J+J added: “Many Janssen compounds, including darunavir, are in the process of being evaluated in-vitro for potential antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2. Janssen has also provided DVR-based medicines to support three clinical studies in China. As soon as these data become available, we will update this information.”
Read the full statement HERE.
