Beijing: China, which is battling the novel coronavirus for the past three months, has completed the clinical research of ‘Favipiravir’ – an antiviral drug that has shown good clinical efficacy against COVID-19, a top Chinese official said Tuesday.
‘Favipiravir’, the influenza drug which was approved for clinical use in Japan in 2014, has shown no obvious adverse reactions in the clinical trial, Zhang Xinmin, director of the China National Centre for Biotechnology Development, told the media here.
The announcement is significant as there is no standardised effective cure yet to treat the COVID-19 patients, though China and a number of other countries used drugs to treat HIV as well as Ebola virus patients.
The coronavirus has shown signs of gradually abating in China including in the epicentre Wuhan where only one confirmed case was reported Monday. The virus was first reported in Wuhan in December last year.
China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said Tuesday that 21 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 13 deaths were reported on the Chinese mainland Monday. Of the deaths, 12 were in worst-hit Hubei province and its capital Wuhan and the other one in Shaanxi province.
The overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 80,881 by the end of Monday. This includes 3,226 people who died of the disease, 8,976 patients who were still being treated, 68,679 others discharged after recovery, the NHC said.
Zhang said more than 80 patients have participated in the clinical trial in The ‘Third People’s Hospital of Shenzhen’, in south China’s Guangdong province, including 35 patients taking ‘Favipiravir’ and 45 patients on a control group.
Results showed that patients receiving ‘Favipiravir’ treatment turned negative for the virus in a shorter time compared with patients in the control group, Zhang informed.
‘Favipiravir’ has been recommended to medical treatment teams and should be included in the diagnosis and treatment plan for COVID-19 as soon as possible, Zhang said.
Agencies
Favipiravir, Coronavirus, China, Hubei, Drug
