Japanese flu drug ‘clearly effective’ in treating Coronavirus, says China. Over the past few days, the COVID- 9 or most popularly known as the Coronavirus has taken over the world. With over 150 countries affected with the virus and the death rate on the rise, there is a state of panic worldwide.
The world seems to have come to lockdown with most going into self-quarantine modes to maintain social distancing ad stay safe. The virus first appeared in late December in Wuhan in China. It was only a matter of two weeks before the virus had started to spread as an outbreak in the rest of the parts of China and the world.
A pandemic Attack
It has been over three months since the virus first appeared and continues to spread, causing panic amongst citizens from all over. With over 80,000 cases of the epidemic and 7500 deads, China has been battling with the virus ever since it appeared, and so are the other countries. Medical researchers continue to test out various medicines and vaccinations as a cure to the Coronavirus, but till now, no cure has been found. However, a recent report by The Guardian seems to have brought in light at the end of the dark tunnel.
Cure for Virus
According to the report published on 18th March, it stated that there might be a possible cure for the virus in the initial stages of the disease. Medical authorities in China seem to have tested a drug that was developed by the Japanese to treat new strains of Influenza, and this seems to appear as effective on Coronavirus patients. Patients who were administered with the medicine after testing positive were found to test negative after four to eleven days.
Japanese Flu Drug
The drug called Favipiravir was developed by a subsidiary of Fujifilm and positive outcome in clinical trials involving 340 patients in Wuhan and Shenzhen was found. China’s minister for science and technology said on Wednesday to the reporters that the drug is highly safe when administered and is showing to be effective in the treatment of Corona Virus. The X-Ray reports also confirmed improved lung conditions of the patients who were administered Favipavir as compared to those who weren’t.
However, Fujifilm Toyama Chemical that had developed the drug, has chosen not to comment on any of the claims currently made by the medical authorities. The drug, also called Avigan, is still being tested out by the medical practitioners in japan on patients that have mild to moderate symptoms in the hope that it would prevent the multiplying of the virus in the body. Further, these patients are clinically studied to develop something more potential to kill off the virus in the multiplying stage.
Claims on treatment
The Japanese health ministry said to the media on Wednesday following the claims made by the Chinese minister Zhang Xinmin, that while the drug seems to work on those who are mild to moderately affected, it does not seem to make any difference on those with more severe symptoms or on those the virus has already multiplied. Another drug that appears to be effective in the initial stages of treatment of Corona Virus patients is a combination of HIV antiretrovirals lopinavir and ritonavir, the source from the healthy Japanese ministry further added.
Japanese Flu Drug of 2018
Favipiravir or Avigan was developed in the year 2018 following the Ebola virus outbreak in Guinea. These were supplied by the Japanese government following the outbreak to counter the virus and was found useful. However, favipiravir still needs approval from the Government to use on a large scale for those affected with the Coronavirus as the drug was initially developed to treat flu. It is under the hope that the positive results of the clinical research and study would help in getting approval as early as May. However, things are still in question marks with the investigation going on as a delay in it, and the results would result in the delay of approval.
Meanwhile, ever since the comments from Zhang became public, there seems to be a rise in demand for the drug, leading to the increased shares in the firm. The shares appear to have taken an increase of 14.7% and hit their daily limit high of 5,238 yen just in the morning.
