Faron Pharmaceuticals Oy (AIM:FARN, OTC:FPHAF)'s Markku Jalkanen, CEO & Founder explains the science behind their research identifying a gene mutation that might explain why some patients with severe respiratory disease respond better than others to treatment with interferon-beta and a steroid.
Analysing data from Traumakine’s phase III INTEREST trial in 2018, Faron said its research showed patients carrying a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the interferon-alpha/beta receptor (IFNAR2) had a significantly better mortality rate in patients also given steroids.
Traumakine failed to hit its primary endpoint in the INTEREST trial as a treatment for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) with no increase in survival rates, a result which shocked the company and has since led it to investigate the reasons for the outcome.
He says the findings suggest that administering glucocorticosteroids to ARDS patients receiving IFN beta-1a therapy is not harmful if they carry the mutation. However, in patients without the mutation, glucocorticosteroid use was associated with high levels of interferon-gamma, an indicator of increased inflammation instead of immune suppression, which is associated with poor outcomes in ARDS and COVID-19 patients.