Help develop a new drug to beat deadly blood clots

HRI is only months away from being able to deliver a revolutionary clot-busting drug to critically ill COVID-19 patients around the world who are fighting for their lives.

Deadly blood clots in the lungs, heart, kidney and brain form in up to 75% of COVID-19 patients in intensive care.

These clots  can trigger strokes and heart attacks, or lead to long-term organ damage or even death.

Existing treatments for these blood clots carry a terrible risk of internal bleeding as a side effect, meaning many COVID-19 patients with these blood clots today cannot be given any treatment and are often on ventilators until their death.

Our breakthrough

Professor Shaun Jackson, Director of Cardiovascular Research at HRI, has been working for over 20 years on a drug that dissolves deadly blood clots safely. This new clot-busting drug has already proved to be completely safe and highly effective in phase 1 trials.

This innovative drug could also save people who suffer from stroke – the leading cause of disability in Australia. Ninety per cent of stroke patients today cannot be given any treatment in hospital due to the bleeding risks of current medications.

But with your help, we could save the lives of COVID-19 and stroke patients around the world – within just months.

Next steps

We are now urgently moving towards global phase 2 trials to test our new drug in critically ill COVID-19 patients in hospital, bringing the drug directly to the people who desperately need it. Doctors around the world could soon be using our drug to save the lives of thousands of COVID-19 patients and the millions more suffering stroke and cardiovascular disease.