Russia to start using its first drug approved to treat Covid-19
MOSCOW: Russia will roll out its first drug approved to treat Covid-19 patients next week, its state financial backer told Reuters, a move it hopes will ease strains on the health system and speed a return to normal economic life.
Russian hospitals can begin giving the antiviral drug, registered under the name Avifavir, to patients from June 11, the head of Russia's RDIF sovereign wealth fund said.
He said the company behind the drug would manufacture enough to treat around 60,000 people a month.
There is currently no vaccine for Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, and human trials of several existing antiviral drugs have yet to show efficacy.
RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev said Russian scientists had modified the drug to enhance it, and said Moscow would be ready to share the details of those modifications within two weeks.
Japan has been trialling the same drug, known there as Avigan but it has yet to be approved for use.
Mr Dmitriev said clinical trials of the drug had been conducted involving 330 people, and had shown it successfully treated the virus in most cases within four days.
The trials were due to be concluded in around a week, he said, but the Health Ministry had given its approval for the drug's use under a special accelerated process and manufacturing had begun in March.
Clinical trials to test the efficacy of drugs usually take many months, even when expedited, and involve large numbers of patients randomly assigned who receive either the drug being trialled or a placebo.
Success in small-scale, early-stage trials is no guarantee of success in later, more comprehensive trials.
Mr Dmitriev said Russia was able to cut testing timescales because the Japanese generic drug which Avifavir is based on was first registered in 2014 and had undergone significant testing before Russian specialists modified it.
"We believe this is a game changer. It will reduce strain on the healthcare system, we'll have fewer people getting into a critical condition," said Mr Dmitriev. "We believe that the drug is key to resuming full economic activity in Russia."
With 414,878 cases, Russia has the third highest number of infections in the world after Brazil and the United States, but has a relatively low official death toll of 4,855. - REUTERS
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now
