Long COVID’s big tent needs to get more precise
Breaking the disease into subtypes will be important for getting more companies into the space
The emerging consensus is that Long COVID should be addressed as a collection of distinct syndromes, even as advocates speak with one voice. Carving the disease into specific pathologies and biomarker-defined subsets will be important for bringing more drug developers into a disease space dominated by the public sector, patient groups and academia.
In the coming weeks, the Long COVID field will receive its first bolus of funding from NIH’s post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC) Initiative, supported by $1.15 billion in Congressional funding over four years. At an April 28 U.S. Congressional subcommittee hearing on Long COVID, NIH Director Francis Collins said the institute is evaluating 273 grant proposals, and will stand up core facilities and a large metacohort of patients for observational and interventional studies...