Feline coronavirus treatment could stop spread of COVID-19 in humans, doctor says
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
BRANDON, Fla. - In 2019, Tracy Kim lost both her parents. To help fill the void, she began fostering for a Brandon, Florida based cat rescue called A Kitten Place .
Kim said, "My first batch at fostering were three kittens about 5 weeks old. My job was to feed them, socialize them, and get them to 4 pounds and send them out for adoption, that didn't quite happen."
Within weeks, a kitten named Tony got sick and his belly began to swell. The veterinarian diagnosed him with FIP - feline infectious peritonitis, which is caused by a coronavirus that is unique to cats.
"When she gave me the diagnosis she handed me five vials, five syringes with some pain medicine and said, 'keep him calm, keep him comfortable, and bring him back when you want to euthanize him,'" Kim recalls.
Instead, Kim began treating Tony - and later a second kitten, Bella - with an experimental drug she buys on the black market from illegal manufacturers in China.
"We saw immediate results! Oh my gosh, in less than 24 hours of taking the first dose the cats start playing," she said. "Seven days on this 84-day treatment you would never know that they were sick, 7 days after a doctor told me to put him down."
Its effect in cats was demonstrated by Dr. Niels Pedersen at the U.C. Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. He's been researching coronaviruses for more than 40 years.
In his most recent study, he successfully treated FIP in 25 of 31 cats using GS-441524. He says the drug works by blocking the virus’s ability to replicate.
"It very clear that GS-441524 is highly effective against coronavirus infection in cats," he explained. "It’s the virus-infected cells that are producing all of these nasty cytokines that are causing this inflammation so if you can stop the replication cold in its tracks you're going to immediately stop the cytokines from being produced."
GS-441524 is very similar to the experimental human drug, Remdesivir and patents for both are held by manufacturer Gilead.
Remdesivir has already been used to treat a Seattle man infected with a different coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Although they can't say for sure that the medication worked, his condition improved one day after receiving the intravenous drug.
Remdesivir is now being used in a clinical trial in China to treat patients with COVID-19 but Pedersen says Gilead is not developing GS-441524 for humans.
But because the two drugs are so similar, he wonders if Remdesivir would work in cats and if GS could work for humans.
"I am kind of amazed but I'm also worried what will happen to the cats if people decide to start using the GS made for cats to treat humans," Pedersen says.
Kim says the rescue paid $7,000 to treat the two kittens and that pet owners around the world are also paying thousands for the supplement. She hopes by shedding a light on the plight of cat owners the manufacturer will realize there's a market for GS for cats.
"There is a viable option that death is not required from this disease but it's just not known," Kim says. "We want to get it off the black market, we want to get this thing mainstream
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No politics.
Interesting development. Gilead again.
GS-441524 is very similar to the experimental human drug, Remdesivir and patents for both are held by manufacturer Gilead.
I have owned a total of 5 stocks (with different degress of invested capital) that are plays on possible development of vaccine fo the virus. Of course its all a crap-shoot at this point. So rather than keeping all that money tied up in thede stocks, I sold one today. Intend to gradually sell off two more.
The two I'm keeping are Moderna and Gilead which look to me to be the best possibilities for developing COVAD-19 .virus. (And IMO MRNA has technology with great potential even if it doesn't get a vaccine for this virus.Also, from what I can determine, the "smart money" is heavily invested in GILD).
Which is not too say that either of these are safe bets...and I am not recommending the purchase of any stock at this time . . .
But I have taken fairly large bets on what I think of as " another way to virus outbreak: plays on the "stay at home" communication trend. Especially Teledoc, but also The Trade Desk and Slack...and more recently Livongo Health.
(Actually made small purchases of the first 3 before major outbreak of the virus just based on the trend of shifting to online communication, added more later. Purchased LVGO later...).
Again, I am not recommending the purchase of any stocks at this time, as this market is especially risky....(I don't think we've hit bottom yet-- IMO the economy is in much worse shape than the government is telling us..and recovery will take longer than they are pretending...)
I have 25 of Gilead....
and 50 Moderna
Looking good.
Sounds good.
I bought MRNA early-- in January-- before the market plunge. So I have a nice gain. In fact I sold off a bit to take profits. (But still holding on to most of it).
OTOH I was a bit late to GILD, only have about a 5% profit. So I may buy a little more on a pullback. (Of course like most people, most of what I own is showing big losses...but long term most of it will recover).
Also especially in risky markets I like the idea of dividend paying stocks, at least for companies that will probably be able to maintain the dividend). And GILD still pays a dividend of about 3.5% which of course I DRIP.
I could be wrong, but I expect another leg down for the market when people start to realize that the economic situation is much worse than our government is telling us...so am waiting to but some of the "safer" stocks to pullback even further.
I got clobbered.
To add insult to injury, I asked the broker what happened my 1009- B
so I could claim all of the losers I sold off in the last quarter of 2019.
Sorry, they are within a 401K, can't claim them.
Our furry friends to the rescue!
Amazing.
Expensive and a long treatment time.
Well if that's the case..if its effective that's still better than no treatment!