“It is very early to comment on the outcome of the results and its use,” said Dr Ashok spokesperson PGI.
JNS: Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh has recorded success with the alternative medicine of Coronavirus, has been tried on six patients which delivered positive results.
The drug Mycovacterium W (MW) vaccine given in the treatment of leprosy has safety tried on 6 patients as an alternative medicine for COVID-19 has yielded positive results, said a PGI authority.
The authorities also claim that patients who needed oxygen during the corona treatment had improved significantly by injecting 0.3 ml of the MW vaccine.
According to the reports, the doctors used this medicine on the patients for three consecutive days and it was found that the use of vaccine on the patient is safe and positive.
Notably, a few days earlier PGI Chandigarh was selected by the Indian government for a clinical trial of Coronavirus vaccine. The Council of Science and Industrial Research (CSIR) approved a clinical trial of the MW vaccine on coronavirus patients used in leprosy.
Meanwhile, PGI doctors found no short-term adverse effects of the drug in the pre-study phase.
According to the media reports, a prospective randomized trial has been planned by PGIMER in Chandigarh along with AIIMS-Delhi and AIIMS-Bhopal to study the effectiveness of MW in hospitalized patients of COVID-19.
MW will be used as an adjunct to the treatment of critically ill COVID-19 patients.
“The impact of Mw use on long-term safety and efficacy will only be known after the conclusion of this CSIR-supported clinical trial, which will be initiated soon at all three centres,” a PGIMER statement said.
“The Mw is not a vaccine for COVID-19. It is an adjunctive immunomodulatory treatment (in addition to standard care) for patients with sepsis. Mw is one of the drugs that is going to be evaluated in COVID-19 patients, like many other treatments (remdesivir, tocilizumab, and others) that are being tried in this disease,” said Dr GD Puri of PGIMER.
“In a recently-concluded multi-centre trial, PGIMER found that Mw reduces mortality in ICU patients with severe sepsis,” it said in the statement of PGIMER.
“It is very early to comment on the outcome of the results and its use,” said Dr Ashok spokesperson PGI.
MW, originally developed as an immunomodulator for leprosy, acts through the toll-like receptor pathway and enhances host-T cell responses. MW can potentially decrease the cytokine storm seen in patients with COVID-19, and may thus be of potential benefit in managing these patients and decreasing mortality, it reported.