APRIL 2020 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 11
THIS MONTH
EDGE TECH IN WAR ON CORONAVIRUS
Hauppauge-based Chembio Diagnostics
announced the launch of a 15-minute
COVID-19 test in the United States on
March 31. The company, which specializes
in making tests for infectious
diseases, said its rapid COVID-19 test
detects antibodies related to the disease.
“We expect to begin shipping product
in April 2020,” Chembio Diagnostics
CEO Richard Eberly said.
Canon Medical Systems Corporation, a
division of Melville-based Canon U.S.A.,
Inc., announced in March that it will
start developing a rapid genetic testing
system for the novel coronavirus in
cooperation with Nagasaki University
in Japan. It was not immediately clear
how soon they’ll be available.
"The total time required is up to 40
minutes, including the time for preprocessing
the sample," a Canon spokeswoman
said. "After preprocessing has
been completed, the time required
for detection in a positive sample is 10
minutes or less."
THE PERFECT DRUG
Northwell Health has begun clinical
trials of two medications designed
to treat COVID-19, including one that
seeks to attack the virus directly and
another that targets the body’s own
response.
The trials, in which people are already
being enrolled, are being done through
Northwell’s Feinstein Institutes for
Medical Research at the system’s hospitals.
The clinical trials are not open
to the general public, but are enrolling
patients in Northwell facilities.
Northwell, through its Feinstein Institutes
of Clinical Research, is partnering
with Foster City, Calif.-based Gilead
Sciences on two clinical trials, looking
at the safety and efficacy of remdesivir
or RDV, an antiviral drug, to reduce the
intensity and duration of COVID-19 in
hospitalized patients.
The first trial can accommodate up to
400 severe cases of COVID-19 globally,
with Dr. Marcia Epstein, Feinstein Institutes
researcher and an infectious
disease expert, as Northwell’s lead
investigator.
Northwell is also taking part in a
phase 3 study of RDV trial with Gilead
that will look at up to 600 patients
with moderate COVID-19 globally. Dr.
Prashant Malhorta, assistant professor
in the Institute of Health Innovations
and Outcomes Research at Feinstein, is
lead investigator for that study.
Northwell Health also initiated a third
trial with up to 400 patients along with
Eastview, N.Y.-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
and Paris-based Sanofi,
regarding the safety and efficacy of
sarilumab.
Northwell Health described that study
as focusing on “a human antibody that
COVID-19
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may prevent the activity” of interleukin
6 (IL-6) that may cause severe
pneumonia in some COVID-19 patients.
MIRACLE CURE
While better tests and treatments are
welcome news, the race to create a vaccine
may be the most consequential of
all. But one likely won’t be ready for at
least a year to 18 months.
Among the researchers seeking a cure
are experts at Farmingdale-based Codagenix,
Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology
company working in collaboration
with the Serum Institute of India to
rapidly codevelop a vaccine against
coronavirus using live COVID-19,
known as live-attenuated vaccine.
“We are proud to be confronting this
public health crisis head-on," said
Codagenix CEO J. Robert Coleman, Ph.D.
“Live-attenuated vaccines like the ones
developed by Codagenix are ideally
suited to outbreak scenarios as they
scale rapidly and generally require only
modest amounts of active ingredient
for each immunization, as compared to
inactivated and subunit vaccines.”
With the number of coronavirus patients
diagnosed on LI doubling from
10,000 to nearly 20,000 in the first week
of April — a month after the first local
case was confirmed — all eyes will be
on these miracle workers as the crisis
continues.
-With additional reporting by Adam
Brownstein
People arrive at a testing facility for coronavirus (COVID-19) in Jones Beach on March 17, 2020. (REUTERS/Andrew
Kelly)
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