● The European commission has awarded the prize for the Plus Vitech PVT-COVID treatment for its potential capacity to save lives by detaining the lesions caused by the Coronavirus in organs such as the lungs and the kidneys.
● PVT-COVID would not only be effective on the current Covid-19 virus, but also on future mutations since it does not focus on the virus, but rather its effects.
● The medication PVT-COVID has already been approved for use in humans for another indication, which would save time on development, production and distribution.
● It is the only pharmacological project awarded, and the team hasbeen invited to a private meeting in May, whose objective is to provide access to investors, companies, foundations and subsidies of the EU of up to 15 million euros of public-private investments
May, 2020.The Spanish medicine and biotechnology company, PlusVitech, has come out on top as one of the winners of the pan-European #EUvsVirus hackathon in the area of health for its PVT-COVID therapy, based on an existing medication, an NK1R antagonist which, in combination with other already approved medications, has the potential capacity to save lives upon detaining the lesion caused by the Coronavirus (Covid-19) in vital organs such as the lungs and the kidneys.
With more than 228,000 worldwide deaths by Covid-19, more than 100,000 deaths in Europe and of those, more than 24,500 in Spain, the European Commission, in collaboration with the state members of the EU, has executed a pan-European hackathon with the objective of developing possible multidisciplinary solutions to fight against the coronavirus and other illnesses.
Out of more than 20,900 participants in the hackathon titled #EUvsVirus, 2,160 solutions were presented, which were judged on their potential social impact, their scalability, the real possibility to launch the prototype, and a consistent business model.
The PVT-COVID project, one of the winners in the area of Life and Health, counts among its team researchers from Spain and the United Kingdom, and is directed by Vicente Salinas, CEO of PlusVitech, a medical doctor who, for the past ten years, has been carrying out cancer research, especially its relation to explosive inflammation.
In some cancer models, this inflammation maintains similar characteristics observed in coronavirus patients, for Vicente Salinas “the importance ofPVT-COVID lies in the fact that it prevents severe pulmonary damage, the principal cause of death by Covid, as well as preventing damage to other vital organs such as the kidneys, potentially with no side effects”. Moreover, Dr. Salinas argues that this therapy would also be effective on future mutations, because it is not centered on the virus but rather the virus’ inflammatory effects, which do not depend on a specific version of Covid.
PVT-COVID has demonstrated its effectiveness in the research carried out by PlusVitech in in-vivo models to prevent severe damage after a pulmonary lesion.These trials have allowed, according to Dr. Salinas,that “we have been able to register a patent petition which protects the use of this type of medication for Covid, thus guaranteeing its use worldwide”.
For her part, Carmen Lara, administrator of PlusVitech and economist,has pointed out that “unfortunately, the current treatments in development are not effective, they are either toxic or they require a long approval and production process. PVT-COVID is based on a type of medication that has already been approved, but for another purpose, therefore we already know that it is safe and can be available immediately in hospital pharmacies, which saves time on its development, production and distribution – allowing us to dream about saving millions of lives and billions of euros in all the world”.
“For the rest of the oncological treatments that we are developing at Plus Vitech, we find ourselves currently in the phase of the final selection of the hospital in which the trial will be carried out, and closing the financial round we have open, which is going to allow us to speed up the arrival to the markets” concludes Carmen Lara.
A bet with Spanish capital
PlusVitechhas been growing thanks to various sources of support, such as Impulsame, a business accelerator situated in Mairena del Alcor, Seville, and Business Angels like ViCe-ILP Foundation with approximately 10% of the company, as well as many small private investors who have personally bet on the project since it began.
Likewise, the Finnova Foundation supports PlusVitech in its innovation in the fight against cancer and COVID, through the Startup Europe Accelerator, meetings with private and multinational investors and promoting the access to financing of the European Commission within the framework of the European Innovation Council program.
About PlusVitech
Established in 2013, PlusVitech is a spin-off of the biotechnological innovation of the Public Health System of Andalusia with headquarters in the Innovation Center of the University of Seville (CITIUS III) and recognized by the Ministry of Economy. The company has been dedicated to the development of effective non-toxic oncological treatments, as well as infectious illnesses, and now against Covid-19.
PlusVitech maintains interdisciplinary collaboration agreements with the Research Institute of the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, the Biomedical Research Institute of Salamanca (IBSAL), the Foundation Institute of Health Sciences of Castile and Leon(IESCyL) and the University of Seville.
The company was founded by Carmen Lara, economist and MBA, and Dr. Vicente Salinas Martín, specialist in pathological anatomy, holder of several patents, who in the past few years has researched the NK1 receptor as a therapeutic response to cancer. He has also carried out numerous pre-clinical studies with neuro-receptors and possesses vast experience in neuro-pharmacological experimentation.
