[ad_1]
New Delhi: Globally, the scientific community is competing against time to reuse drugs and study their effectiveness against Covid-19. One drug that has been in the news is the antiretroviral Remdesivir, developed by the American Gilead Sciences Inc. The findings of a randomized controlled trial study of Redemisivir, conducted in Wuhan, China, were published in the Lancet medical journal on Wednesday. The study did not show any statistically significant clinical benefit of the drug compared to a placebo, substances that are like drugs without any actual ingredients of the drug.
Shortly after the study was published, Dr. Anthony S Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Remdesivir shortened recovery time among patients, the first results of a clinical trial showed.
What does this indicate and what is the status of other drugs that the Indian government is looking to use as a line of treatment against Covid-19? What is the process that is followed to evaluate the efficacy of these medications and which medications are being tested in trials? News18 explains.
What are the different medications that are ‘reused’ or tested to determine their effectiveness against Covid-19?
There is no medicine that has been shown to be effective as a treatment against Covid-19. While there is a race to create a vaccine against infectious disease, countries around the world are also conducting clinical trials on “reused drugs.” These are medications that have already been widely used to treat other diseases like HIV, influenza, malaria, and even arthritis. These classes of drugs are known as antivirals (used against the flu), antibiotics, antiretrovirals (used against HIV), and immunosuppressive drugs.
Drugs being tested for efficacy against Covid-19 include Remdesivir, Favipiravir, Interferon beta-1A, Hydroxychloroquine, Lopinavir / Ritonavir, Tocilizumab, and Umifenovir. As previously stated, Remdesivir had shown conflicting results in two randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that were conducted in China and the USA. While Favipiravir is about to be tested in an RCT in India. The mechanism of treatment of different diseases using the drugs in question has similarities with the way in which we could treat Covid-19.
What is remdesivir?
According to the government working group on drug reuse, Remdesivir is an antiviral that was used on a limited basis against infectious Ebola disease during its outbreak in Africa. It is an experimental medication and is produced by Gilead Sciences Inc, a pharmaceutical company based in the United States. It has generated promising results in animal studies for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which are also caused by coronavirus, suggesting that it may have some effect in patients with Covid-19, World Health Organization said.
What did the trials in China and the United States show?
Dr. Fauci, the leading infectious disease expert in the United States, said Wednesday that the first results of an ongoing crucial clinical trial in the United States showed that the experimental antiviral helped patients recover more quickly from the disease. Covid-19. Fauci said that patients who received Remdesivir recovered 31% faster than those who received a placebo, calling the development “highly significant.”
However, another randomized clinical trial conducted in China, albeit in a smaller group of people, showed that Remdesivir did not significantly improve the condition of the patients compared to either the placebo or the dummy drug. The document also said that while there was a numerical reduction in time for clinical improvement in those previously treated, this requires confirmation in larger studies. Thus, even though the jury has yet to rule on the impact of the drug against Covid-19, it is also the first to show some positive effects in early trials. With trials of other drugs lined up, it’s early to say whether Remdesivir is the most effective drug against Covid-19.
What is the WHO solidarity trial?
To integrate some of the overlapping efforts of scientists from around the world to find an effective treatment for Covid-19, the World Health Organization launched an international “solidarity clinical trial”. The solidarity trial will compare four treatment options with the standard of care, to assess their relative effectiveness against Covid-19, the WHO said. One of the crucial reasons for this effort is to speed up the testing process and increase its scale. It usually takes years to design and conduct clinical trials for emerging diseases. The WHO said the solidarity trial will reduce that time by 80%.
“Enrolling patients in a single randomized trial will help facilitate rapid global comparison of untested treatments. This will outweigh the risk that multiple small trials will not generate the robust evidence needed to determine the relative effectiveness of potential treatments, “the WHO said. More than 100 countries are working together on this issue. Based on laboratory tests, animal and clinical studies, the options selected for the trials were Remdesivir, Lopinavir / Ritonavir, Lopinavir / Ritonavir with interferon beta-1a, and chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine.
What is the Indian government’s evaluation of these drugs?
The government working group on drug reuse made a first-of-its-kind assessment last week on drugs that have potential for treatment with Covid-19. News18 was the first to report this evaluation which showed that the antiviral drug Favipiravir and the immunomodulatory drug Tocilizumab are the most promising drugs in terms of their readiness for use and the potential for Covid-19 treatment.
The working group has said that this assessment, based on the scientific literature available worldwide, will be dynamic in nature. As clinical trial information and findings update, drug evaluation and rating will reflect the change. Favipiravir is an antiviral medication and is approved in Japan for the treatment of influenza. It is currently being tested in 18 clinical trials for Covid-19 and the results of two studies have shown a positive result while awaiting data from other trials.
The working group is also evaluating patent barriers in case an effective drug needs to be produced in India urgently.
Support the daily wage earners who have been most affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Click here to contribute to the cause. #IndiaGives
The Daily Bulletin News18 Coronavirus COVID-19: Get your copy here.
Subscribe to News18 Daybreak. Follow us Twitter,
Instagram
Facebook,
Telegram,
TikTok and in
Youtube
First Anniversary Offer: Sign up for the Moneycontrol PRO Annual Plan for ₹ 1 / – per day for the first year and claim exclusive benefits worth ₹ 20,000. Coupon Code: PRO365
[ad_2]
