Five-Day Course of Oral Antiviral Appears to Stop SARS-CoV-2 in Its Tracks

[Northerner]

A single pill of the investigational drug molnupiravir taken twice a day for 5 days eliminated SARS-CoV-2 from the nasopharynx of 49 participants.

That led Carlos del Rio, MD, distinguished professor of medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, to suggest a future in which a drug like molnupiravir could be taken in the first few days of symptoms to prevent severe disease, similar to Tamiflu for influenza.

"I think it's critically important," he told Medscape Medical News of the data. Emory University was involved in the trial of molnupiravir but del Rio was not part of that team. "This drug offers the first antiviral oral drug that then could be used in an outpatient setting."

Still, del Rio said it's too soon to call this particular drug the breakthrough clinicians need to keep people out of the ICU.

Oral Antiviral Stops SARS-CoV-2 in its Tracks

Could a Tamiflu-like oral pill to control SARS-CoV-2 stop COVID-19 before it gets severe?

www.medscape.com

 

[Amigo]

This shows promise in the armourey!

Merck has better luck with 2nd COVID-19 drug attempt as it sees a positive in early molnupiravir data

Merck has had a torrid time with COVID-19 vaccines and a major setback with its OncoImmune-partnered pandemic med, but now, finally, it’s seeing some good news on that R&D front.

www.fiercebiotech.com

 

[mikeyB]

The trials of this drug are tiny in Covid-19. And announcing results before peer review is poor research. That has been the curse of many an apparent miracle cure.

In any event, the trial to which he refers is, I think, one that recruited 208 patients. That would mean a 25% success rate. That’s if you accept it was the drug doing that, and not the immune system of the patients. We haven’t been told how often the patients on placebo in the double blind trial showed the same viral clearance, so the success rate may well be lower. Or even non existent. For sure, Tamiflu is no great shakes at stopping people dying from flu.

 

[Amigo]

The trials of this drug are tiny in Covid-19. And announcing results before peer review is poor research. That has been the curse of many an apparent miracle cure.

In any event, the trial to which he refers is, I think, one that recruited 208 patients. That would mean a 25% success rate. That’s if you accept it was the drug doing that, and not the immune system of the patients. We haven’t been told how often the patients on placebo in the double blind trial showed the same viral clearance, so the success rate may well be lower. Or even non existent. For sure, Tamiflu is no great shakes at stopping people dying from flu.

That‘s why I linked in the actual work Merck and partners are undertaking Mike. It’s early days and may not have widespread efficacy but it’s showing great promise and at the moment we need more therapeutics in the treatment armoury (especially for those of us who are not mounting a response in the anti- SARS total antibody spike protein test following vaccination).