China’s anti-Neo-Coronavirus (COVID-19) drugs and vaccines have been frequently questioned and slapped in the face internationally.
Kintor Pharmaceutical, a Chinese biotechnology company, said on April 25 that it had completed its first patient enrollment and first patient enrollment in a Phase 3 clinical trial of Proxalutamide, a treatment for the New Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States. The “good news” caused the company’s stock price to soar when it said on April 25 that it had completed enrolling and dosing its first patient in a Phase 3 clinical trial of Proxalutamide, a treatment for the new coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States. But foreign experts say Pioneer Pharmaceuticals’ claims are so contradictory as to be unbelievable.
Reuters reported on Friday (May 14) that the Hong Kong-listed company’s shares have almost tripled since March 1, sending its market value soaring from HK$6.6 billion to HK$23.4 billion after the trial results were revealed.
But the paradox is that the company released flawed research documents, the report said. For example, a document published by Pioneer Pharmaceuticals on its U.S. website said that Pioneer’s lead clinical trial investigator was Zeid Kayali, a California gastroenterologist. But Kayali told Reuters that he was not in charge of the clinical trial, and he said that as of early May, no patients had been given the drug at all.
Lucy Lu, the chief financial officer of Pioneer Pharmaceuticals, said in an interview that Kayali was only one of the clinical trial investigators. She also declined to comment further on last month’s trial results report, and declined to disclose information about the other principal investigators or the clinical trial site in charge, saying they were “company secrets.
Reuters said most pharmaceutical companies usually provide such information, including who led the clinical trial and which research organization or medical institution was responsible for ensuring the safety of the subjects and the scientific validity of the experiment.
Stephen Ostroff, former chief scientist at the FDA, said the lack of transparency and inconsistent claims made by Pioneer Pharma’s trials made the company’s claims of efficacy highly suspect.
Reuters also reported another red flag – Pioneer Pharmaceuticals repeatedly touted the results of their clinical trial in Brazil, where the company claimed that Proxalutamide reduced the risk of death in 92 percent of patients. Such a high level of effectiveness has led several experts, including Ostroff, to say “it’s unbelievable. If it were true, Ostroff said, it would be a “remarkable achievement that would take your breath away.
Alexandre Cavalcanti, director of the HCor Institute in São Paulo, Brazil, said the person who wrote the study on the pioneering pharmaceutical industry was an “amateur”. Cavalcanti said that the world is looking for an effective treatment for the new coronavirus, and that Pioneer’s drugs are “so effective” in reducing the risk of mortality that people can’t believe it.
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