This Flu Drug Shows Promising Results In Preventing COVID-19

London: Even as the Odisha government has started the use of Favipiravir for COVID-19 patients in home isolation, a study by Rega Institute for Medical Research at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium has shown that the flu drug, when administered in high doses, is effective in preventing the infection in rodents.

Further research will have to determine whether humans can tolerate a high dose of favipiravir, favipiravir — a broad-spectrum antiviral drug used in Japan to treat influenza — for four to five days, the IANS reported.

“Because we administered the drug shortly before exposing the hamsters to the virus, we could establish that the medicine can also be used prophylactically, so in prevention,” Suzanne Kaptein from the institute was quoted as saying by the news agency.

According to the study, Favipiravir inhibited virus infection in intranasally infected hamsters, but only at high doses. Importantly, treatment with high doses also resulted in a significant decrease in lung histopathology.

“If further research shows that the results are the same in humans, the drug could be used right after someone from a high-risk group has come into contact with an infected person. It may likely also be active during the early stages of the disease.”

No side-effected was seen in the hamsters, the report added.

OTHER ANTIVIRALS

A Nova Scotia-based company had recently announced it is evaluating the use of a broad-spectrum antiviral in the early treatment setting of COVID-19 to shorten the time to clinical recovery in adult patients with mild to moderate symptoms.

A Japan-based medication producer has also announced that the primary endpoint of a limited phase III clinical trial of “Avigan Tablet” was met.

According to a report published in PrecessionVaccination, FUJIFILM Toyama Chemical Co., Ltd. confirmed in a press release, with a statistically significant difference (0.0136), that the administration of Avigan to COVID-19 patients, with non-serious pneumonia, demonstrates a shorter time to resolution.