Covid-19: Point of View

As a knowledge platform, eu.reca continuously aims to establish and maintain connections between, amongst others, health care professionals, business people and start-ups in order to stimulate innovation in the respiratory field. To fuel discussions and trigger progress, we have now launched a new medium to share interesting point of views on respiratory-related topics with our community.

The current Corona crisis and the damage caused by Covid-19 to the lungs is a new illustration of the vulnerability of this vital organ. Focusing exclusively on all aspects related to lunghealth, the non-profit organisation eu.reca works with experts that are directly connected to the frontline healthcare providers who manage the consequences of the crisis. We have asked them to share some reflections about the crisis and its impact on the themes eu.reca works on, such as clinical trials and product development in respiratory. In a number of short contributions our experts discuss the expected impact of the crisis on our future way of working, but also on the opportunities that might arise. We hope you will enjoy these “Points of View”. ”

PART 1 – Covid-19 Where do we go?
Prof. dr. Marc Decramer tackles the most important question: “What have we learned from the present pandemic and how will we master these crises better in the future?”

PART 2- How COVID-19 impacts the conduct of clinical trials?
Prof. dr. Robert Lins clarifies that the pandemic of COVID-19 has a dramatic impact on the conduct of ongoing clinical trials and the initiation of new ones. At the same time, there is a high demand for new clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19 and epidemiologic studies.

PART 3- COVID-19 – a special case
Prof. dr. Didier Cataldo points out a special case: the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It can cause severe pneumonia which is different from other pneumonia common seen in the hospital, explains Professor Didier Cataldo, a lung specialist at the CHU de Liège. The long term effect is huge. Besides, the COVID-19 pandemic forces us to rethink the way we produce life-saving medicines and tools.

PART 4- COVID-19 – what we can learn from history
Prof. dr. Guy Joos tells us more about ‘what we can learn from history’. Certainly, the knowledge of viral infections does
take-off: at this moment there are worldwide 1.400 trials on COVID-19, including 26 Belgian studies, registered in ClinTrials.Gov. Videoconferencing will be a booming business over the long term and avoid unnecessarily long-distance traveling

PART 5 – Covid-19: Impact on the clinical trial market
Prof. dr. Bruno Speder is Head Regulatory Affairs & Consultancy at SGS Life Sciences and has played a pivotal role in the establishment of several CHIM models, and has led interactions with global regulators on their use. He is currently advising a broad range of organizations (non-profits, biotechs, large pharma) on the regulatory aspects of challenge studies and how they need to be implemented in development plans.

PART 6 – Covid-19: ArtiQ: AI is making a difference in lung  disease assessment
ArtiQ, is a young and innovative spin-off company. Intensive collaboration between medical staff, engineers, and technical staff resulted in an algorithm for a better interpretation of lung function tests. Besides, the young company invests also in research on AI to support first-line care in the field of lung diseases and the clinical trial business.
How does COVID-19 impact their business?

PART 7 – Covid-19: The importance of lung cell research with regard to evaluating the health impact of UFP
Evelien Frijns (MSc.) obtained a Master’s degree in Physical Geography at the University of Amsterdam in 2002. Since 2007 she has been working as an aerosol researcher at VITO and has developed expertise in measuring human exposure to (ultra) fine particles and nanoparticles in the air. She conducts research indoors, at workplaces, in offices, schools and homes, as well as outdoors, in cities, around industrial sites and airports. In test chambers she conducts research into the release of these particles from products or processes. Since 2014, she has also been involved in research on exposing lung cells to aerosols to determine toxic effects at the cellular level.

PART 8 – Covid-19: Umicore: International cooperation allows us to keep a step ahead of the pandemic
At the time when Covid was still being dismissed as just a mild flu in Belgium, large international companies were already taking drastic measures to protect their employees and ensure continuity of production. Dr. Bert Swennen, MD, Group Director Health & Safety at Umicore (worldwide) explains how international cooperation allowed Umicore to keep a step
ahead of the pandemic.

These eu.reca Point of View articles have been written by experts in the field, with collaboration and approval of the eu.reca Advisory Board members and with the support of our partners and sponsors.