Coronavirus medication developed in Israel is 96% effective, hospital says
Of the 30 patients who were given the drug, 29 showed marked improvement within two days
An Israeli hospital may have found the cure for COVID-19 in a potential game changer in the fight against the global pandemic, according to the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, also known as Ichilov Hospital.
The medicine's developer, Prof Nadir Arber from the hospital's Integrated Cancer Prevention Center, administered it to patients in moderate and serious condition, reporting an impressive success rate of 96 percent.
Prof Arber hailed the drug dubbed EXO-CD24 as "effective inexpensive."
'The medicine is administered through inhalation, once a day, in a procedure that takes only a few minutes, for five days," Prof Arber specified.
"It is based on exosomes that the body is releasing from the cell membrane and uses for intercellular communication. We enrich the exosomes with the 24CD protein, which is known to play an important role in regulating the immune system," according to Prof Arber's director of laboratory Dr. Shiran Shapira, who has been conducting research on CD24 protein for over two decades.
Of the 30 patients who were given the drug, 29 showed marked improvement within two days and were released from the hospital three to five days later.
The remaining patient has also recovered but her recovery took longer, the hospital said.
Iisrael's former coronavirus coordinator Prof Ronni Gamzu hailed the breakthrough as "excellent," saying he would personally assist Prof Arber to secure the Health Ministry's go-ahead to test the medication on a wider pool of patients.
"I'm proud that here at Ichilov we are among the world leaders in finding the cure for the horrible epidemic," said Prof Gamzu, who has now returned to his position as the hospital's CEO.
It is unclear whether the drug is equally effective against the recent, and reportedly more virulent, strains of the virus, including those issuing from Britain, South Africa and Brazil.
Despite its world-leading vaccination campaign, Israel has continued to register daily caseloads above 5,000, despite a nationwide lockdown in place since December 27.
Since the beginning of the global pandemic last year, the Jewish state has registered over 680,000 cases, including 5,019 deaths.