Avigan Favipiravir Drug: Could this be the solution to Coronavirus?
Leaders in the CHina’s health sectors has announced that the Japanese-developed anti-influenza drug, Avigan, has been found to be effective in treating coronavirus patients.
This claim was confirmed by the Director of China’s National Center for Biotechnology Development, Zhang Xinmin at a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday. Mr. Xinmin said that the drug was effective in two clinical trials completed in Wuhan and Shenzhen involving 320 patients. He added that the medicine worked for coronavirus-related symptoms including pneumonia and had no obvious side effects.
“It has a high degree of safety and is clearly effective in treatment,” Xinmin announced.
According to drugbank.ca, favipiravir does not only inhibit replication of influenza A and B, but the drug also shows promise in the treatment of avian influenza and strains resistant to neuramidase inhibitors.9,19 Importantly, favipiravir has been investigated for the treatment of life-threatening pathogens such as Ebola virus, Lassa virus, and now COVID-19.
Chinese media reported that patients who were administered with drug in Shenzhen turned negative for the virus after four days of therapy, compared with a median of 11 days for those who were not treated with the drug.
It has also bene confirmed that there is improvements in lung conditions in almost 90% of patients who used favipiravir, compared to 62% who did not receive it.
