India-origin US doc gets patent for treating Covid: 'Vaccination not best strategy'

By Rosamma Thomas*
Dr MS Reddy, who trained originally as a veterinarian and then studied microbiology, bacteriology, food technology and virology, was granted a patent by the US Patent Office for a multi-phase treatment for Covid-19 on August 3, 2021. His patent application was filed in September 2020. Dr Reddy is originally from Andhra Pradesh and currently a US citizen.
Dr Reddy’s treatment is administered through a sinus flush, a mouthwash or a nasal inhalation. The preparation, comprising antioxidants and probiotics, could even be ingested. The trick is to have high immunity, Dr Reddy believes. And given that Indians have curds in their meals, they already have probiotics as part of their diet. Even earlier, studies have shown that curds have the ability to protect against Covid infection.
Dr Reddy is of the view that the mutating character of the virus means that vaccination may not be the best strategy to curtail its spread and prevent disease. Given the mutations, there are already calls for a third – a booster – dose; it is unclear yet whether that will be the last, and whether a booster shot will grant lifetime immunity. That is why treatment might be the better option. There are doctors across the world using Ivermectin, an old anti-parasitic drug that is currently out of patent, to treat patients infected with SARS-Cov-2.
Dr Reddy’s technique is to target the fatty ball, rather than the spike in the virus. Kyle W Rost, US patent attorney who represented Dr Reddy, explains that the disruption of the fatty ball prevents spread of the virus. The vaccines have a different mode of operation – they enable the body to create antibodies that attack the spike protein on the virus. Mutations alter the composition of the spike, so the vaccines may prove ineffective against subsequent mutations.
Over six lakh deaths from Covid are reported in the US alone. Across the world, it is estimated that over 40 lakh people have died, since the first cases were reported in December 2019.
Vaccines for containing the virus were introduced more speedily than vaccines have ever been developed before, and have raised a storm of controversy, with reputed scientists like Mike Yeadon, former vice president of Pfizer, announcing that it would be wrong to call the injection a vaccine, for it is like no other vaccine developed before. Yeadon has warned of the risks from mass vaccination, and pointed to possible adverse events in women of child-bearing age since the lipid nanoparticle shell of the Pfizer vaccine was shown to concentrate in the ovaries of rodents, during testing.
Emergency use authorization for the vaccine is predicated on the absence of any treatment protocol. Given that there now exists a patent treatment for the virus, emergency use authorization for the vaccine is not legally tenable. The website of the Food and Drug Administration of the US states: “Under an EUA, FDA may allow the use of unapproved medical products, or unapproved uses of approved medical products in an emergency to diagnose, treat, or prevent serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions when certain statutory criteria have been met, including that there are no adequate, approved, and available alternatives.”
Dr Reddy, who is recognized as a leading expert in applied microbiology and has worked extensively on pollution mitigation and dairy products including probiotics, holds over 150 US and international patents. He has been campaigning for reducing the adverse effects of drugs, using Ayurvedic remedies and herbs. He has been nominated for the Nobel Prize nine times by members of the US Congress.

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*Freelance journalist based in Pune