Scientists discuss the use of favipiravir in COVID-19 therapy

Promomed 18 June 2021

Almost a year and a half has passed since the announcement of the coronavirus infection pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. During this time, doctors and pharmacists have made significant progress in studying the new coronavirus and methods of dealing with it. According to experts, along with vaccines, antiviral drugs will play a decisive role in defeating the pandemic.*

The potential of modern etiotropic therapy of COVID-19 and other diseases caused by RNA viruses became the topic of a recently held expert council under the auspices of the Russian Scientific Medical Society of Physicians (RSMSP) and the consortium of the academic community for the study of coronavirus infection. Much attention in the discussion was given to the issue of the pharmacological justification of the use of favipiravir in the treatment of patients with COVID-19, influenza and other diseases caused by RNA viruses.

«Favipiravir has an excellent antiviral reputation,» said Larisa Balykova, director of the Medical Institute at the Ogarev Mordovia State University, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor. The Mordovia State University was one of the centers for conducting the open randomized multicenter comparative study of the efficacy and safety of Areplivir (Promomed Group produces favipiravir under this trademark).

According to Larisa Balykova, favipiravir provides an improvement in the clinical status by WHO scale four days faster and twice as often as compared to standard therapy. «The effect was achieved absolutely in all age categories, including patients over 60 years old. By the tenth day, 98% of patients receiving favipiravir achieved viral clearance as compared to the control group with only 76% of patients,» the professor notes. «The course of therapy with favipiravir provided a marked improvement in the condition of the lungs. More than 60% of patients after a course of therapy had no or minimal signs of lung damage. The saturation normalized faster, already on the third day, the patients were relieved of fever.»

Larisa Tarasova, member of the RSMSP Presidium, gave an impressive example from clinical practice. In the Surgut Regional Clinical Hospital, since July 2020, when supply of favipiravir to the hospital started, the doctors who prescribed it never had to fill out a mandatory notification form about an adverse reaction or lack of therapeutic effect.

Larisa Tarasova also noted that favipiravir can also be used for prophylactic purposes: «If, for example, a patient was in contact with a person with coronavirus infection, and the likelihood of his infection is high, then I think that preventive treatment with this drug is justified.»

In July 2020, academician Dmitry Pushkar, speaking at a meeting of the Defense and Security Committee of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, figuratively described this process as follows: «How does the drug work? It really destroys ribonucleic acid – the «brain» or «genitals» of the virus (the latter illustration is more familiar to me because I am an urologist) and stops its reproduction.»

* The text was prepared based on the information from the «Science» supplement edition of the Kommersant Publishing House dated June 17, 2021 and titled «Offensive on the therapeutic front. What are the successes achieved in the treatment of COVID-19?»

Source: www.kommersant.ru