The early trials for potential medication for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) yielded mixed results.
Medical experts in China bared that the drug being used in Japan to treat coronavirus patients appeared to help patients recover.
Zhang Xinmin, an official from China’s Ministry of Science and Technology revealed that Favipiravir, created by Fujifilm’s healthcare subsidiary Fujifilm Toyama Chemical, had been effective based on clinical trials done in Wuhan and Shenzhen involving 340 patients.
“It has a high degree of safety and is clearly effective in treatment,” Zhang said.
NHK reported that patients who were administered with the medicine in Shenzhen turned negative for the virus after a median of four days after being diagnosed with the virus, compared with a median of 11 days for those who were not treated with the drug.
Favipiravir also known as Avigan, was approved for use in Japan since 2014 and was supplied to Guinea during the Ebola outbreak in 2016.
Meanwhile, the combination of lopinavir and ritonavir, developed by AbbVie Inc, failed to improve conditions of COVID-19 patients in its clinical trial involving 199 patients, according to a study published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The HIV drug Kaletra, which was administered to 99 patients at Jin Yin-Tan Hospital in Wuhan, China, while the rest received standard care.
The study concluded that with “hospitalized adult patients with severe COVID-19, no benefit was observed with Kaletra treatment beyond standard care.”
Investigators added that detailed results of the trial show potential promise for the drug. However, they said it needs further study.
