A new anti-COVID drug developed in Russia: Here's how it works

Promomed 12 February 2022

It can be used at home upon doctor’s advice.


Perhaps with the help of this drug it will be possible to stop the pandemic and significantly reduce the number of people who needs hospitalization. Time will tell.

The drug based on the internationally recognized molecule was developed and put into production by Promomed Group. An agent containing molnupiravir (trade name Esperavir) was created in Russia using innovative technology, taking into account global experience and recommendations of international protocols for the treatment of COVID-19, and recently received a marketing authorization certificate based on results of successfully conducted clinical trials on thousands of patients around the world.

This is another anti-covid drug (we previously reported about Areplivir, also developed by Promomed Group) to the toolkit of doctors and their patients who do not want to get into a hospital bed with complications. Patient will be able to use it at home by prescription of an attending physician at an early start of treatment for COVID-19 or at the first signs of ARVI, thanks to a convenient dosage form, capsules.

The developers explain that it is for the first time in a pandemic, when doctors have the opportunity to choose how to control COVID, using favipiravir or molnupiravir. Both molecules act directly and specifically on the virus, very quickly preventing its reproduction in the body and, as a result, preventing damage to organs even in the asymptomatic phase. It has been proven that it is the rate of virus destruction that plays perhaps the most important role in the treatment of COVID-19, making it possible to reduce the risks of complications in the course of the disease and prevent the development of negative consequences. Depending on the patient's condition, the presence or absence of chronic diseases, the doctor will be able to choose the most suitable therapy for this particular person.


«... The virus leaves doctors almost no room for error. A line of anti-covid drugs currently available for the national health care is the merit of Russian scientists and developers. For the first of them, favipiravir, a decent evidence base and a wide experience of clinical use is in place, its effectiveness has been studied in hundreds of thousands of patients throughout the country; the second, molnupiravir, just recently became available in the country, but drugs based on this molecule are well studied. There are about ten clinical studies conducted in different countries, including the studies by Promomed Group in Russia, which you can safely rely on in your medical practice,» commented Sergey Avdeev, Chief Pulmonologist of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

At the moment, the new drug has passed all the necessary clinical trials and has been studied at sixteen Russian medical institutions in Moscow, Saransk, Yaroslavl, Smolensk, Ryazan, Kirov, St. Petersburg, Ivanov, Voronezh, and other cities. Of course, most of us still have questions bacause of lack of information: may be the drug is harmful, may be its use is dangerous in the long term. It would be appropriate to recall here that the active substance itself has been known to science for several years, and clinical trials demonstrated a very good safety profile. That is, we can rely on the data obtained in research and on authoritative opinions.

Getting down to business

«The activity of Promomed meets the principles of the so-called translational medicine,» Andrey Budnevsky, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation, Head of the Department for Research and Innovation, Head of the Department of Faculty Therapy at the Burdenko Voronezh State Medical University, presents his vision of the situation. «This direction of medicine involves the accumulation and transfer of all the achievements of world science, all research into practical healthcare. We can say that this is a modern trend. The fact is that it often takes a very long time from the discovery to the introduction of a useful technology into mass use. For example, it takes about 10-15 years on average to develop a new drug. The pace of the spread of coronavirus infection does not leave humanity this amount of time. This means that we need to shorten it and use the existing developments for the fastest and most effective creation and application of new therapeutic and diagnostic approaches in the clinical practice. Internationally recognized drugs have a high reputation, in particular, this also applies to molnupiravir (it existed since the early 2000s, and now comes out with a Russian trade name). The drug reduces the risk of hospitalization, complications of coronavirus infection and the number of adverse outcomes. Clinical studies have proven the superiority of this therapy over standard therapy. How does it work? By integrating into the viral particles, the drug suppresses its replication, that is, reproduction in the body. And already on the 5th day of treatment, more than 80% of patients achieve complete elimination of the virus from the body.


Will we breathe easier soon?

Everyone is waiting for the pandemic to end. But, alas, there are not so many objective conditions for this. Rather, the rising numbers of newly infected people indicate the opposite. The pace of vaccination in the countries, including Russia, leaves much to be desired. Some people are skeptical about vaccination. Therefore, it remains to hope for the invention of a «magic pill» for COVID scourge. And, I must say, we rightfully place great hopes on our researchers and scientists. It is possible that it is antiviral drugs that are destined to put a winning point in this long-running war of humanity with the virus.

«Another drug for the treatment of coronavirus infection has entered the market,» comments Elena Simakina, Head of the Infectious Diseases Department at the Smolensk Clinical Hospital, certified physician of superior expert category, assistant at the Department of Infectious Diseases of the Smolensk State Medical University. «It demonstrates activity against many strains of RNA viruses in most minimal concentrations: against influenza, bird flu, viral encephalitis, a number of «cold» viruses and, most importantly, against COVID-19. That is, a wide area opens up for the use of this drug for various acute respiratory viral infections, accompanied by catarrhal syndrome. What else is important to emphasize: the drug has a very high safety margin. In addition, the wider the range of drugs, the better and calmer the situation is for doctors and their patients. One medicine may work well for one person, another one will help someone else. Each of these products will have its own niche. The new drug is indicated to almost everyone. The full course of therapy is 5 days. But we will not immediately disregard the existing antiviral drugs that we used earlier. However, at the moment it is already clear: we got a breakthrough drug, which will certainly be in demand in outpatient therapy. Already on the third or fourth day after the start of treatment, the viral load is significantly reduced, signs of intoxication in the body (fever, body aches, headache, etc.) disappear, the risk of damage decreases (primarily in the lungs), patients feel better, and a progressive recovery begins.

Difficult but solvable problem

«It is well known that the treatment of COVID-19 is a rather difficult problem, because there were no effective drugs against this virus before», states Vladimir Chulanov, Chief Outstaff Specialist for Infectious Diseases of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Deputy Director for Research and Innovative Development of the National Medical Research Center for Phthisiopulmonology and Infectious Diseases. «When the epidemic began, pharmaceutical companies, both foreign and domestic ones, began to actively engage in work in the search and development of drugs for COVID-19. Favipiravir became the first one. Relatively early, back in 2020, it was studied for efficacy and included in Russian national guidelines, and currently it is successfully used.

It is clear that the efficacy of existing drugs is limited, so this train goes on and many companies continue their search and create drugs that turn out to be even more effective.

One such new drug is molnupiravir; like favipiravir it inhibits one of the key enzymes of the virus. It is enzyme that is involved in reproduction of the virus. But the mechanism of action of the new drug differs from that of favipiravir. And it is especially useful in the first five days of the disease and patients can use it at home. It is important that different products are emerging to combat the virus, which is spreading at a high speed. Medicinal novelties can be successfully used to treat Omicron and other known strains of coronavirus infection.


Photos are provided by the press service of Promomed Group

Source: www.kp.ru