"Celltrion Healthcare announced on June 23 that a patient with ulcerative colitis who contracted the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in Italy was tested negative a week after being treated with "Remsima," a treatment for the autoimmune disease of the Celltrion."
According to Celltrion Healthcare, a male patient in his 30s who was hospitalized for ulcerative colitis, an autoimmune disease, at a national hospital in Milan, Italy, was infected with COVID-19, causing pneumonia.
It was difficult for the patient to proceed with the operation due to the continuation of his breathing with the help of a mechanical device. The condition of ulcerative colitis was also a serious condition. The medical team, led by the deputy director of the hospital's digestive medicine department, administered Ramsima, which is used to treat inflammatory bowel diseases, to patients.
The patient's symptoms such as dyspnoea have improved significantly within a week after the prescription. Computer tomography (CT) also showed significant improvement. Afterwards, the patient was able to breathe on his own without a separate device and was released from the hospital after receiving a COVID-19 negative test.
"This is the first time that an adult patient with autoimmune diseases has been cured of COVID-19 and improved ulcerative colitis since he was injected with Remsima," said Dr. Gianpiero Manes, who was in charge of the treatment. "We can now support the medical community's claim that Remsima, a treatment for autoimmune diseases, can be effective not only for patients with autoimmune diseases but also for ordinary patients." He added that the treatment was published in Gut, a journal of digestive medicine.
As the Remsima's case of improvement of inflammation in COVID-19 patient has been announced, the argument that autoimmune disease drugs should be considered in the treatment of COVID-19 is expected to draw more attention.
Earlier in April, Dr. Marc Feldmann of Oxford University said in the international journal The Lancet that research is needed to use the "TNF –α inhibitor," a type of autoimmune disease treatment, to treat COVID-19.
Currently, clinical trials are underway in Britain to check the effects of Remsima's COVID-19 treatment under the leadership of a research team led by Dr. Feldman and Birmingham University Hospital.
"We expect Ramsima to help patients with autoimmune diseases infected with COVID-19, and to provide comprehensive solutions to overcome Coronavirus 19, including the development of COVID-19 antibody treatments and diagnostic kits," said an official at Celltrion Healthcare.
