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Is a University of Toronto scientist bullish about finding effective treatment for the coronavirus?

Thursday, June 11, 2020
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YES

A University of Toronto researcher, Sachdev Sidhu, is confident that the lab's work with antibody therapies is leading it to an effective treatment, perhaps a cure, for COVID-19.

An Ontario radio station's account of an interview with the scientist may overstate the imminence of a widely available treatment and the likelihood of a complete cure. Sidhu stated some big ambitions: "I wouldn't mind getting a Nobel Prize for economics" for helping reshape pharmaceutical development, he said. He does not discuss in the interview his founding of a private company with two other doctors to commercialize his academic work.

Any new therapy generally passes through rigorous testing to prove both its efficacy and safety. There is as yet no independent assessment of Sidhu's chances of success.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
Virna Therapeutics Virna Therapeutics partners with University of Toronto
University of Toronto Researchers hunt antivirals to treat COVID-19
Health News Review Avoid single-source COVID-19 stories
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Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.