Italian and Korean research organisations to share clinical trial and supercomputing information
Several EU and South Korean research organisations have agreed to carry out joint research on a potential Covid-19 treatment based on a repurposed drug, the European Commission has announced.
Three South Korean organisations—the government-funded Gyeonggido Business and Science Accelerator, the National Korean Institute of Health and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information—will work with the Italian drug company Dompe Farmaceutici and the Italian supercomputing centre Cineca to test the efficacy of Raloxifene, the Commission said on 18 November.
The osteoporosis drug has shown promise for treating Covid-19 in independent research from both countries, but its potential has yet to be confirmed in clinical trials. Such testing is underway in Italy, supported by a €3 million grant from the Commission through the Horizon 2020 R&D programme and with an additional €1m from the European Emergency Support Instrument.
The Commission said the organisations will “exchange information on non-clinical and clinical trial plans and characteristics of Raloxifene as well as on other Covid-19 antiviral molecules discovered through supercomputer analysis”.