Kintor Pharmaceutical Ltd of China is supplying a male sex hormone blocker for a clinical trial in Brazil of a treatment for Covid-19, which is being led by Applied Biology Inc. of the United States, the BioWorld website reports.
The website says the purpose of the trial is to confirm whether proxalutamide can reduce the rate of confinement in hospital of men infected by the Covid-19 virus, as suggested by research done at Soochow University in eastern China.
The report says the 254 subjects of the trial are all 50-year-old or older men with male-pattern baldness, because androgens seem to help the virus enter human cells.
It quotes Kintor Pharmaceutical Chief Financial Officer Lucy Lu as saying the trial is due to end next January.
If proxalutamide proves effective, it could be used to treat men newly infected with the Covid-19 virus, the BioWorld website quotes Applied Biology Chief Medical Officer Andy Goren as saying.
