Biotechnology company Applied Biology Inc and and Brown University revealed on Monday that a rapid drug discovery platform to help identify drugs for the treatment of COVID-19 is essential for identifying viable treatments world-wide.

Based on breakthrough discovery and the joint research effort, the companies have concluded that an androgen receptor may be implicated in COVID-19 mortality risk, therefore, human type II pneumocytes androgen sensitivity should be tested as a potential treatment marker.

The team was led by Carlos G. Wambier, MD, PhD director of Cosmetic Research at the Department of Dermatology of the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Andy Goren, MD chief medical officer at Applied Biology and medical advisor to the Department of Dermatology of the Alpert Medical School of Brown University along with a team of collaborators from other institutions.

This discovery has been submitted for publication in the medical journal Dermatologic Therapy. The testing androgen sensitivity along with ACE2 and TMPRSS2 expression provides a rapid method to assess the effectiveness of drug candidates in inhibiting the cellular entry of COVID-19, concluded the company researchers.