Flu-induced Respiratory Failure

Every winter, the world is affected by flu epidemics. Often the symptoms are quite mild, but sometimes they become very serious. The Spanish flu caused 50-100 million deaths in 1918-1919 and even the Asian flu (57-58) and the Hong Kong flu (68-70) resulted in millions of dead¹. Today, the swine flu 2009 spread and caused a great deal of death despite modern care. Influenza viruses can cause such severe airway inflammation that they collapse, which can not be addressed with today’s drug. The only possibility is to place the patient in an “artificial lung”². This is an extremely complicated technique, which can only be made available to a handful of patients. A major influenza epidemic of a virus strain that severely worsens lung function would be a nightmare and considered by many experts as one of the greatest threats to the future of humanity.

PharmaLundensis develops a treatment for Flu-induced lung failure (ARDS). Laboratory experiments is being performed to clarify if pharmacological modification of a specific mechanism can effectively treat this pulmonary disease. An effective drug will be useful to many patients with pulmonary symptoms from the yearly seasonal flu. In addition, the drug will be of great interest to emergency preparedness organizations around the world as protection against future dangerous flu epidemics. Thus, there will be a huge market for this product.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extracorporeal_membrane_oxygenation