Biognosys researches biomarkers for COVID-19

Biognosys could use its expertise to provide a decisive contribution to developing an immunotherapy for the severe inflammation of the lungs caused by coronavirus. The company hopes to use its technological means to identify individual protein biomarkers that help standard medication to regularly be successful. The Biotech company from Schlieren is working on this with the leading French cancer research center Gustave Roussy.

According to a press release, previous study results have shown that patients had varying responses to tocilizumab. This drug was originally developed for rheumatoid arthritis and blocks interleukin-6, which is the protein responsible for the inflammatory process in the lungs of COVID-19 patients. This medication has led to rapid improvement of symptoms in some patients in France, China, and Italy. Others have responded to this treatment less or not at all.

The American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved a phase III study for the cytokine inhibitor tocilizumab. This blocks the proinflammatory protein interleukin-6 (IL-6). According to the press release, this study fueled hopes of an effective treatment for COVID-19. The aim is now to find biomarkers that show which biomechanisms effectively block IL-6 for particular patients.

Oliver Rinner, CEO of Biognosys, is quoted in the press release saying “We are grateful that we can be part of this unprecedented effort by the research community to find a treatment for COVID-19 patients with acute symptoms. Combining biomarkers with repurposed drugs is a promising approach to provide relief for COVID-19 and many other diseases. He adds that Biognosys’ single-shot Hyper Reaction Monitoring Mass Spectrometry “is immediately available to measure hundreds of proteins, and to select from amongst those the most promising protein biomarkers.”

Biognosys is a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), headquartered in the Bio-Technopark Schlieren-Zürich.