Researchers at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) who have developed a traditional Chinese medicine formula to suppress COVID-19 yesterday said that they plan to transfer the rights to the product on a non-profit basis.
The formula, known as “Jing Guan Fang,” contains weeping forsythia, Baikal skullcap, Chinese thorowax root, Magnolia officinalis bark and Korean mint, Hsu Chung-hua (許中華), a professor at NYCU’s Institute of Traditional Medicine, told a news conference, adding that it helps to suppress COVID-19 infection and symptoms.
The product was developed early in the COVID-19 pandemic, before vaccines became available, by drawing on knowledge from the SARS coronavirus, a close relative of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, said Hsu, who is director of Taipei City Hospital’s Linsen Chinese Medicine and Kunming Branch.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
Researchers from February to May 2020 conducted an initial study, distributing the product to frontline medical workers and hospital personnel, Hsu said.
Of the 1,086 people who took the formula, about 90 percent reported a reduction in sore throat, cough and other common cold symptoms, he said.
Based on the results, researchers at NYCU’s Institute of Traditional Medicine and Institute of Pharmacology conducted animal tests for the product, he said.
The formula “significantly reduced” the expression of two proteins in the lungs — ACE2 and TMRSS2 — which are receptors for SARS-CoV-2, thus impeding the process by which it binds to host cells, Hsu said.
The product was also effective when administered to laboratory mice as an inhalable drug, he added.
The formula is only available by prescription from doctors of Chinese medicine at public hospitals, Hsu said, adding that it should only be used as a supplement to COVID-19 vaccines.
By transferring the formula, a company could seek regulatory approval to make it available over-the-counter, thus allowing more people to access it, he said.
NYCU vice president Cheng Tzu-hao (鄭子豪) said that the university was looking for a manufacturer to whom it could transfer the rights to the formula on a charitable basis, citing the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine partnership as an example.
The NYCU team’s research was published on March 21 in the Frontiers in Pharmacology journal.
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