BREAKING NEWS: NEW TREATMENT FOR COVID-19? Part-I
CORONAVIRUS VACCINE KAB AYEGA YAAR!!! ~ The whole world
While the whole world is anxious about the coronavirus outbreak and the failure of developing coronavirus vaccine, 3 new compounds decided to shine some light on us.
3 drugs namely Fabiflu, Cipremi, and Coviflor were launched in India by the pharmaceutical giants: Glenmark, Cipla, and Hetero. These drugs claim to be potential drugs for treatment against Coronavirus.
Every drug has an original name and a market name.
Fabiflu is originally known as Favipiravir. Cipremi and Coviflor are also known as Remdesivir. Both Favipiravir and Remdesivir are anti-viral drugs.
In this blog, we'll focus on Favipiravir (miracle coronavirus medicine). Scroll down to find link for part-II of this blog.
The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has affirmed the use of favipiravir for COVID-19 treatment and emergency clinical use starting on 19 June, in India.
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, the medication's producer, was given the authorization to make and market favipiravir (200 mg) in a tablet form. According to an announcement by Glenmark, the medication will be propelled industrially by next week, to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 cases. The price of this medicine is evaluated to be Rs 103 for each tablet!
Favipiravir is an antiviral prescription that was created in Japan. The drug is originally known for treating people affected by the influenza virus. The drug shows anti-viral activity against all subtypes of influenza virus strains. Not only does it inhibit replication of influenza A and B, but the drug has also shown effective treatment of avian influenza.
"Favipiravir can be used for patients with conditions such as diabetes and heart disease and mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms" a Glenmark articulation distributed on Saturday, read.
This is what makes Flavipiravir better than Hydroxychloroquine since Hydroxychloroquine has several side effects as mentioned in my previous blog.
Favipiravir offers a quick decrease in viral burden within 4 days and gives quicker suggestive and radiological improvement. Of most significance, favipiravir has shown clinical improvement of up to 88 percent in mild to moderate COVID-19 cases.
HOW DOES FAVIPIRAVIR WORK?
One of the key factors that aid the recognition of a virus is the sort of hereditary material it is made of – viruses are either DNA-based or RNA-based viruses. Favipiravir works solely on RNA based viruses.
It has a fairly unique mechanism of action as contrasted with other known influenza antivirals, which essentially prevents a virus from either entering or leaving a living cell. Favipiravir keeps the virus from making duplicates of itself once it gets inside a host cell. It does this by targetting a key protein compound that the virus uses to duplicate its hereditary material (RNA) inside the host, called RNA polymerase. This unique mode of action has made favipiravir a possibly encouraging medication to treat especially untreatable RNA viral infections, where every other mediation seems to have fizzled.
An examination of 80 subjects using favipiravir demonstrated that 91 percent of the participants had better CT scans after treatment. Even though the results were encouraging, the study was limited by design – it wasn't the randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial format that is originally required to make a strong argument for the drug's effectiveness.
Favipiravir has been accounted for as unsafe in pregnancy. It is referred to in certain examinations as a "teratogen" which can cause anomalies in a fetus after it is exposed during pregnancy. Hence, the drug is potentially toxic to a growing embryo.
Glenmark is likewise directing clinical studies to assess the adequacy of two antivirals Favipiravir and Umifenovir as a blend treatment to treat moderate COVID-19 cases in adults in India.
Will favipiravir mellow down coronavirus in India? Will this drug be the 'coronavirus cure' we all were waiting for? What do you guys think?
Read PART-II of this blog about Remdesivir here!!
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Even if you remember... Flavipiravir was also proved to be effective against the Nipah virus.
ReplyDeleteAnd also it was shown to hinder the signalling pathways of the virus which in turn resulted in no proliferation of the Virus
ABSOLUTELY!!!! Thankyou so much for pointing that fact out! Love the small interactions like this <3
DeleteThis only prevents replication. The first cell will still remain infected right?
ReplyDeleteThe cell is affected only if the virus replicates and breaks the cell for facilitating its spread to other cells.
ReplyDeleteIf replication does not take place then the cells won't rupture and the body will not be affected.
Cells have a mechanism to detect and excrete unwanted foreign bodies that are of no use to the cell. Without replication the virus is just an unwanted body in the cell. It gets excreted or stored up in vacuoles.
Thanks for asking that question! Feel free to ask more <3