antiviral drugs Archives - Medically Speaking

Hyderabad-based Optimus Pharma has applied to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for an emergency use authorization for Molnupiravir. The business stated that preliminary findings of its Phase-3 clinical studies revealed that the medication was successful in lowering viral load in patients.

The company is also all geared up to begin manufacturing Molnupiravir once it gets the EUA nod from the drug regulator, Optimus Pharma chairman & managing director Dr D Srinivasa Reddy said on Wednesday. On the Phase-3 trials, Reddy said interim results of 353 patients showed the drug was successful in reducing viral load effectively with RT-PCR negativity achieved in 78.3% patients in the test arm as compared to 48.4% in standard of care (SOC) arm on Day 5 of administering the drug.

“Day 10 and 14 of the treatment duration has also given excellent results wherein remaining patients have successfully achieved RT-PCR negativity. The trial also reveals clinical improvement in health in a significantly high proportion of patients. The safety of the drug has also been established with no observed side effects, co-morbidity or morbidity observed during and after the treatment duration,” Reddy explained.

A team of researchers has found that three commonly used antiviral and antimalarial drugs are effective at preventing reproduction of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The researchers were looking for compounds that could block the entry of the virus into the cell.

The study looked at three antiviral drugs that have been effective against Ebola and the Marburg virus: tilorone, quinacrine, and pyronaridine. They chose these compounds because the researchers knew that other antivirals which successfully act against Ebola are also effective inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2.

The researchers utilized a variety of cell lines that represented potential targets for SARS-CoV-2 infection in the human body. They infected the cell lines with the different viruses and then looked at how well the compounds prevented viral replication in the cells.

The team found that the results were mixed, with the compounds’ effectiveness depending upon whether they were used in human-derived cell lines or monkey-derived cell lines, known as ‘Vero cell lines’.

“In the human-derived cell lines, we found that all three compounds worked similarly to Remdesivir, which is currently being used to treat COVID-19,” the researchers said.

The next steps for the research include testing the compounds’ effectiveness in a mouse model and working on understanding how they inhibit viral replication.

antiviral drugs

Molnupiravir EUA Optimus Pharma Seek Node

Three Common Antiviral Drugs Potentially Effective Against COVID-19