Episode 22: Dr Tomer Bronshtein - Israeli Innovation

Dr. Tomer Bronshtein is the Head of Research at Bonus BioGroup, an Israeli biotechnology company that has some big claims and some big results in the fight against acute COVID-19. In fact, they claim a 100% success rate in the first ten patients treated as part of an early-stage clinical trial of their drug MesenCure, at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, Israel.

The therapy consists of activated Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs) that are isolated from the tissue of healthy donors. The engineered cells go to work teaching your own cells how to combat the inflammation caused by the body’s reaction to the Coronavirus. The treatment was found to reduce inflammation and repair injured lung tissues in patients suffering from life-threatening respiratory distress brought on by COVID-19. In the trials, MesenCure was administered to 50 hospitalised COVID-19 patients suffering from life-threatening pneumonia and respiratory distress, with the company noting that 47 of those patients had survived. 

We wanted to find out whether this treatment could help those suffering from Long Covid after a mild infection. From our conversation with Bronshtein, it sounds as if the work is extremely promising and could lead to developments in treating hyper-inflammatory response in numerous conditions. More research is needed to establish whether it will be able to help those already afflicted, but it seems likely that it could prevent people developing Long Covid in the future.

With the Phase II clinical trial, which took place in several medical centres in Israel, recently concluded, Bronshtein revealed that MesenCure can "save three out of four people that are at risk of dying" and "can reduce their hospital length of stay by half." He said it "will accelerate their healing in a way that will cause less permanent tissue damage and reduce the risk for Long Covid.”