PEAK ASSET: MORNING WRAP 18 JANUARY: | ASX to fall, global equities lower | Neuroscientific is researching a potential cure for post-COVID lung damage |

While coronavirus vaccines may soon ease the danger of the pandemic, a burgeoning Western Australian company is investigating a possible treatment for a consequence of COVID-19 that may be with us for decades.

As many as a third of COVID-19 survivors are estimated to have developed what is being called “post Covid fibrosis” – scarring or inflammation of the tissue around the air sacs of the lungs, leading to chronic cough, shortness of breath and the need for oxygen.

For radiologists treating Covid, the “ground glass opacities” seen on chest CT scans have been a hallmark of the pandemic. Other than lung transplants there’s no proven treatment, nor can doctors know if the survivors will ever heal. And the victims can be as young as in their 20s.

With more than 75 million people globally having contracted coronavirus, health systems around the world will almost certainly be dealing with this after-effect from the pandemic long after new infections are no longer a widespread danger.

But Neuroscientific Biopharmaceuticals (ASX:NSB) has recently partnered with the Institute of Respiratory Health and the University of Western Australia to investigate the use of its lead drug candidate, EmtinB, as a potential treatment.

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