Covid-19 pill shows promise in preliminary testing

Further study of the experimental antivirals is underway. If it proves that it can treat people with Covid-19 who show symptoms, the drug will strengthen a limited arsenal of treatments and be the first oral antiviral drug against the disease.

More than a year into the pandemic, doctors and Covid-19 patients have few options. Only one antiviral agent is allowed to use: Gilead Sciences inhibitor Inc.

, and it has been shown to offer only a modest benefit in patients admitted to the hospital, which reduces their stay by a few days.

The experimental drug, called molnupiravir, can play an important role in helping people who are ill but still at home and serve the same kind of role that Tamiflu plays for the flu, say infectious disease experts.

“It’s tantalizing and interesting, but it’s not exactly 100% complete,” said Carl Dieffenbach, director of the AIDS division at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He was not involved in the study. “What we need to confirm is that there are clinical benefits.”

Drug researchers are working to find new Covid-19 drugs to improve the performance of the few available therapies and to fill gaps in supply. They are also looking for therapies that are effective against new coronavirus variants that are spreading rapidly.

“The clear need for this is the development of powerful antiviral drugs that act directly on SARS-CoV-2,” Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID and President Biden’s chief medical adviser, said at a recent White House briefing, referring to to the virus causing the pandemic.

Unlike other drugs that protrude on the vein protein that protrudes on the surface of the virus, molnupiravir attacks a portion of the virus that helps it reproduce.

The 182 middle-aged, or phase 2, subject studied the effect of different doses of molnupiravir in people who developed Covid-19 symptoms, tested positive for the disease over the past four days, and were not hospitalized.

Tests did not detect any contagious virus in any of the volunteers in the study who took molnupiravir twice daily after five days of treatment, while 24% of the subjects who received a placebo reported Ridgeback during the virtual conference on retroviruses and opportunistic infections.

Subjects taking larger doses of the drug also had lower levels of infectious viruses than the placebo group after three days.

Wayne Holman, co-founder of Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, said the results suggest that the drug prevents the new coronavirus from repeating itself in the body and that it is the first evidence that an oral antiviral drug can be effective against the virus.

The findings also suggest, but do not prove, that the drug can reduce diseases, said dr. Holman, who is also the CEO of Ridgeback Capital, an investment firm, said. Ridgeback Biotherapeutics has an approved treatment for Ebola.

Merck said it could have interim results by the end of this month from two late-stage investigators investigating whether molnupiravir helps prevent Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths.