Jay Lalezari

Jay Lalezari, MD is a physician and the Director of Quest Clinical Research who recently penned “Hope for Critically Ill Covid-19 Patients Within Reach” wherein he describes the results of a randomised, double-blind study of a drug called leronlimab (Vyrologix or PRO 140) which demonstrates a 82% reduction in the rate of death at Day 14 for patients on a ventilator who received 2 weekly doses of leronlimab compared to a placebo. Stressing the urgency for the FDA to approve leronlimab under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), Lalezari examines the various obstacles to achieving this end—from the ways in which Small Pharma faces greater economic hurdles compared to Big Pharma to the effort by short-sellers to sink CytoDyn, the producer of leronlimab, to the politics that allow Big Pharma to overpower smaller pharmaceutical companies strategically and economically. To confirm the finding for the FDA, CytoDyn must perform another trial of leronlimab that will take months to complete meanwhile critically ill patients in the Philippines are receiving leronlimab as part of the therapeutic treatment for critically ill COVID-19 patients and in Brazil some patients are well on the road to receiving this life-saving drug in Phase 3 trials soon to be conducted in up to 45 clinical sites.