“There are 6-7 anti-COVID-19 vaccines at an advanced stage of clinical development. Of the first three, traveling in parallel, we should have the data between the end of the year and the first months of next year. It is an extraordinarily accelerated process, but we cannot skip the fundamental steps, which are firstly the verification of safety and then of effectiveness”. Thus the DG of AIFA Nicola Magrini who, speaking today at 24 Mattino (Radio 24), summed up the situation of the medicines and vaccines under study and the current therapeutic standards for COVID-19.
“When the vaccine is available, a great organisational challenge will await us - added Magrini - because the vaccines will also be placed and administered to a population that we usually do not vaccinate, that is the adult population, which in Italy is made up of 40 million people”.
Regarding the therapies in use, “there is no single therapeutic approach – explained AIFA DG – it depends on the stages and severity of the disease.
In the phase at home, the best thing to do is watchful waiting: do not take medicines, treat only the febrile symptoms (if the temperature exceeds 38°/38.5°).
For hospitalized patients, in addition to oxygen, which remains one of the key approaches of the therapy, cortisone and heparin represent a new standard of care for all the most serious cases”.
On the other therapies, “Remdesivir is being repositioned because, following the publication of further studies, the efficacy was less than expected and should be given mainly in combination with cortisone, where necessary, while for hydroxychloroquine the data are very disappointing and currently not a therapeutic option. On hyperimmune plasma, the results of some studies and data from the USA are not convincing. In Italy, a randomized study is underway which is now enrolling patients more quickly and if the participating centres increase, the size of the study will allow us to have useful data for evaluation within the next 2-3 months. We also await responses from studies on monoclonal antibodies which are a great enhancement of this therapy”.
“On vaccination against seasonal flu – said AIFA DG – I hope that there is not a problem of a lack of vaccines. However, if this should be the case, it would be the sign of an adhesion never seen before by the population: it would mean that we would have vaccinated almost twice as much as in previous years. However, I am confident that, thanks to the very strict measures that we are all observing - physical distancing, use of masks, hand washing - the transmission of the flu virus will be greatly slowed down, as happened in the southern hemisphere”.