The new drug, called Molnupiravir, developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, has already passed the Phase I trial where it showed good reduction of the New Crown virus in patients.
“It could be the holy grail for treating neo-crown because it’s shown to really abort the virus in all of the Phase II studies.” Dr. Siegel said. “And the neo-coronavirus was not found in patients after the experimental dosing.”
This is to be taken at Home in five-day courses, and like Tamiflu, a previous treatment for influenza, it cures patients by preventing the virus from replicating in the body before it becomes more destructive.
Trials of the drug in 182 volunteer patients, none of whom were tested for viral infection, took the drug orally twice a day for a total of five days, while the placebo results in the control group showed that 24 percent of patients had symptoms of viral infection. After three days, the number of infections tested was lower in the patients taking the higher dose than in the patients taking the lower dose.
Another feature of the drug is that it targets the spike protein on the surface of the virus, unlike other drugs that target Neovirus, but this drug attacks the part of the virus that replicates.
Dr. Siegel said the drug could be on the market in as little as 4-5 months. He said that although the drug has only been studied in 182 patients so far, it has shown promising results.
In fact, late last year, the German media reported that Molnupiravir had shown surprising anti-new coronavirus effects in animal trials: ferrets that had been infected were no longer infectious within just 24 hours. The researchers hoped that this would lead to a breakthrough in the fight against the new crown Epidemic. Until today, the experiment looked like a further success.
Researchers at Georgia State University in the United States may have discovered a drug that kills the virus immediately after infection, the German news channel reported on its website Dec. 7.
A team of researchers led by Richard Plumber found in animal tests that the new antiviral drug MK-4482/EIDD-2801 (also known as Molnupiravir) completely blocked the spread of the virus within 24 hours. The related paper has been published in the monthly professional journal Nature Microbiology (UK).
Molnupiravir was originally developed to fight influenza and works by the same mechanism as raltegravir, which has been used to fight the new coronavirus: by mutating the virus’ ribonucleic acid (RNA), it stops the virus from multiplying, according to the report.
Molnupiravir has one big advantage over the injectable drug raltegravir, the researchers said. Plumber said, “This is the first Time that an oral drug has been shown to rapidly block the spread of a new coronavirus.”
The researchers believe the drug can stop patients from progressing to severe disease earlier, as well as shorten the duration of infection and reduce emotional and socioeconomic stress for patients, while also rapidly stopping local outbreaks of neo-coronavirus.
Plumber and colleagues reportedly tested the drug with ferrets, which are related to mink, because transmission of the new coronavirus in this animal is extremely similar to transmission in young populations. In both cases, the virus spreads rapidly, but rarely progresses to severe disease.
The results of the ferret trial were that the infected animals taking Molnupiravir did not transmit the virus to their cagemates, while the animals taking the placebo infected all of their cagemates. Premper said the ability of the virus to spread was “dramatically reduced” by oral administration. He believes these properties would make Molnupiravir a “strong candidate” for containing a new pandemic.
But in May, concerns arose that the active ingredient could cause mutations in animal offspring. One “whistle blower” said that after using a similar drug, the offspring of experimental animals had no teeth and no partial skull loss. Other researchers have reportedly warned that the drug could damage the genetic material of offspring.
However, the developers of the active ingredient refuted these allegations and said that no mutations in genetic material were observed in animal tests.
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