A New Antiviral pill against COVID-19-by Dr Harold Gunatillake

Harold-Gunethilake

reduces the risk of hospitalization and death

Transcript:

We are all waiting for this miracle pill of a US. drug maker from Merck, that is supposed to reduce the chances of hospitalization, having worst effects, and dying from COVID-19 by half. The FDA has still to authorize it for people to use, but this drug would be the first pill shown to treat coronavirus and a global effort to control the pandemic.

So far, all authorized therapies are in IV or injection form.

This is a very convenient pill that could be taken when a patient turns positive on PCR testing. This pill is going to help people to keep out of hospital, and the burden of overcrowding will be solved in the very near future, and hospitals can go back to their routine procedures.

This pill is not a cure, but studies have shown that it reduces the symptoms, and hospitalization and death of mild cases, and could be so important

Also, this drug can be used in lower-income countries as it would be cheaper than expensive infusion therapies.

There are widely available treatments for COVID-19 on the market, many of them are expensive, difficult to administer, not widely available, or only marginally effective. They are antiparasitic drug ivermectin and anti-malarial drug hydro chloroquine.

The only antiviral drug remdesivir currently the only drug with full FDA approval to treat Covid-19, also must be given into the bloodstream.

The US President’s administration officials say that this new pill will be an easier way to treat and control the pandemic.

It is not a pill to take to prevent COVID-19, and neither will replace the vaccines given as prophylactic.

It was originally developed to treat influenza. It is given twice a day in pill form for five days.

Dr. Anthony Fauci calls it “very good news” and Merck’s data on its medicine “impressive.”

The generic name of the drug is called molnuppiravir and found that within five days of COVID-19 symptoms had about half the rate of hospitalization and death as patients who received a dummy pill, on the trials.

The study tracked 775 adults with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who were considered higher risk for severe disease due to health problems such as obesity, diabetes, or heart disease. The results have not been peer reviewed by outside experts, the usual procedure for vetting new medical research, says Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.

Among patients taking molnupiravir, 7.3 per cent were either hospitalized or died at the end of 30 days, compared with 14.1 per cent of those getting the dummy pill. There were no deaths in the drug group after that period compared with eight deaths in the placebo group, according to Merck.

The trial was stopped, with the approval of regulators once these results showed the drug’s effectiveness.

An independent group of medical experts monitoring the trial recommended stopping it early because the interim results were so strong. That is typical when early results show so clearly that a treatment works that there is no need for further testing before applying for authorization. Company executives said they plan to submit the data for review by the Food and Drug Administration in coming days. This drug is effective against delta and mu.

The US government has already purchased 1 million and seven hundred dollars’ worth of this pill.

How does this drug works?

This drug targets the virus within your body cells by causing genetic mutations that will hamper the virus, without damaging the human body cells.

Since it being a pill that you take at home, the patient may not have to attend clinics and the chances of others getting infected, especially health care workers will be averted.

There were side effects from this drug trial -35 percent of molnupiravir recipients and in 40 per cent of the placebo group.

Let us hope this new pill will lessen the pandemic and help people in all countries to return to forgotten normal life.

Hope this video talk was useful

Stay safe, wear the mask, and goodbye for now.

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