Spahn/Karliczek: Further impetus for the development and manufacture of supply-related drugs against COVID-19

The Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) are once again expanding their support for pharmaceutical companies in the development of new drugs against Covid-19. To this end, they are publishing a new funding announcement this week to support the clinical development of supply-related COVID-19 drugs and their manufacturing capacities. The aim of the joint program with a volume of 300 million euros is for candidates for new therapeutics that have been successfully tested in clinical phases I and II to be used by patients in Germany as quickly as possible.

This is intended to expand the options for treating COVID-19. In addition, medicinal products that are already approved for another indication should be included in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn: “Corona will not simply disappear. Even if we manage to get the pandemic under control, there will be people who become seriously ill in the long term. Preventing this is the goal of this funding program. Above all, we want to support small and medium-sized biotech companies in the development of innovative corona drugs. Vaccination takes away the horror of the pandemic, effective therapies for the disease.”

Federal Research Minister Anja Karliczek adds: “The BMBF has been funding the development of new treatment options since spring 2020 and at the beginning of this year extended support in this area to include tests in clinical test phases I and II. I am therefore pleased that we can now extend the research and development to the final testing phase and manufacturing capacities. Our goal is for effective and safe medicines against COVID-19 to reach patients as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, we have to expect that even with a high vaccination rate, people will continue to contract COVID-19. For these patients, we therefore urgently need new therapy options that can be used as needed in the different stages of an infection.

In addition to the development of specific drugs against COVID-19, we also support studies on the use of already known drugs. These have been approved for other indications and are now being evaluated for their effectiveness in treating COVID-19.”

Source: Press release from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research from March 12.05.2021, XNUMX