Repurposing Medications for the COVID-19 Pandemic: Basic Science Symposium

Moderator(s)

• 

  Gregg Silverman, MD

  Professor, Department of Medicine
  NYU School of Medicine

Speaker(s)

• AC

  Arnab Chatterjee, PhD

  Calibr at Scripps Research
• 

  Roberto Caricchio, MD

  Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University

This year, the entire world was gripped by the sudden COVID-19 pandemic. Intensive care units filled with critically ill patients who seemed to be battling an atypical cytokine storm. In the urgent fight to save them, physicians tried to utilize existing medications approved for other inflammatory conditions, including rheumatic diseases. Rheumatologists worldwide were called into action to assess the potential benefits and risks of IL-1 and IL-6 blockers, JAK inhibitors, and other arthritis therapies in patients with a new, mysterious coronavirus infection. This year’s Basic Science Symposium will feature an array of fascinating presentations on the global effort to repurpose existing medications to treat COVID-19. Faculty will discuss the assays and systems used to survey available compounds, review early data on potential COVID-19 therapies, how to repurpose the rheumatologist’s therapeutic armamentarium to treat the new coronavirus and potential adverse effects of biologic and non-biologic DMARDs in patients with COVID-19.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss the rationale and ethical considerations for repurposing existing, proven medications to treat critically ill patients with a novel, life-threatening disease
• Discuss the existing assays and systems used to survey multiple compounds to treat a novel coronavirus with unclear pathogenesis
• Review early data from ongoing studies of compounds being tested as therapies to treat COVID-19
• Discuss the rationale for using existing IL-1, IL-6 and JAK inhibitors to treat severe inflammatory reactions in COVID-19, as well as possible adverse events associated with their use in this critical clinical scenario

Presentations:

• 4:00 PM – 4:20 PM ET

  Leverage the World’s Leading Drug Repurposing Collection vs. COVID-19
  Arnab Chatterjee, PhD – Calibr at Scripps Research
• 4:20 PM – 4:40 PM ET

  Repurposing the Rheumatologist’s Armentarium to Treat COVID-19
  Roberto Caricchio, MD – Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University
• 4:40 PM – 5:00 PM ET

  Q&A