On May 11, 2020, a University of Alberta-initiated institute leads province wide effort to fill the looming shortage of drugs that are vital in the fight against COVID-19. Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation (API)ﾗa not-for-profit institute housed within the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences to help commercialize pharmaceuticals’ is co-ordinating labs across the Edmonton region to manufacture the drugs needed to put people on a ventilator.

“It’s an emerging issue that in the longer term will likely overtake the lack of ventilators and personal protective equipment as the primary barrier to caring for patients,” said Andrew MacIsaac, API CEO and assistant dean in the faculty.  “The shortage of these drugs is expected to continue over the next two years as COVID-19 wreaks havoc on typical supply and demand, and will be further compounded with the resumption of backlogged surgeries and other procedures.”

He said the two drugs API is focused on right now are propofol, an anesthetic, and cisatracurium, a muscle relaxant, that together are taken via IV by someone about to be put on a respirator.  “The primary one of the two is propofol, since it is more critical and shortages of it will affect much more than just COVID-19 patients as it is the drug for sedating someone in hospital for surgery,” said MacIsaac.

One reason is that the initial ingredients in many pharmaceuticals are petrochemicals and, just as important, because Alberta has been an oil and gas region for so long and the U of A conducts research in the area, it provides graduates from chemistry and chemical engineering with the broad understanding of the processes and concepts that can be used in any sort of chemical manufacturing.

Besides the in-province drug production to support COVID-19 hospital patients, other COVID-19-related projects API is undertaking include developing a new antiviral drug based on past research on viruses of the same family, and launching a clinical trial for a new antiviral compound that targets more than just COVID-19 and is less toxic, and therefore easier on the immune system.