Vesti Nedeli on Russia 1 TV channel Coronavirus infection becomes manageable
The Vesti Nedeli program of the Russia 1 TV channel featured a report about a new drug for coronavirus infection – the antiviral drug Esperavir® based on molnupiravir molecule.
The coronavirus infection is becoming manageable. Today, in addition to vaccines, targeted antiviral drugs have appeared. Production of molnupiravir startes at the Biokhimik plant in Saransk.
«The drug’s mode of action is that it blocks the enzyme participating in the virus replication. The drug has certain targets within this enzyme. It defeats the virus in just five days,» said Petr Bely, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Promomed Group.
The principle of action of molnupiravir is that it introduces errors into the genetic code of the virus, thereby preventing it from replicating.
«When a virus enters the body and attaches to a cell, it gets inside the cell and begins to replicate. Molnupiravir is aimed at interrupting this process of reproduction as early as possible,» says Natalya Selezneva, head of the Center for Advanced Training of Doctors and Retraining of Specialists, Associate Professor of the Medical Institute of Ogarev Mordovia State University.
The development of this drug was simultaneously carried out by Russian, British and American scientists. The United States was the first to approve this drug at the end of November last year. It was sold to Russia at limited quotas and overpriced.
There has already been a similar deal in history. In the 1944, during the war, the Americans supplied penicillin to the Soviet Union at $4.40 per ampoule. It was decided to build seven factories for the production of domestic antibiotics. The modern Biokhimik plant has become one of those enterprises.
In 1969, an advertising banner flaunted in the center of Paris: «The best in the world Russian penicillin is manufactured at the medicinal products plant in the city of Saransk!» Now this plant produces a drug for the treatment of COVID-19 – molnupiravir.
«Its advantage is good tolerability. Thus it can be used even if we are not sure if the infection is caused by coronavirus. I mean cases when only symptoms that are common to any respiratory viral infection are present: cough, runny nose, malaise, sore throat,» said Larisa Bykova, Head of the Department of Pediatrics at the Ogarev Mordovia State University, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
