Anti-flu drug ‘very promising’ vs virus

THE Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday said a Japanese-developed antiflu medication appears to be “very promising” for treating coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients.

“It is very promising. It looks like one of the antivirals. This is directed to treatment of Covid- 19 patients,” said FDA Director General Eric Domingo said, referring to the drug Avigan.

The drug is still in the early stage of development, but Covid patients had a positive response to it, Domingo told radio DZBB.

Avigan has not gone into commercial production and has no distributor in the Philippines, he said.

China’s Ministry of Science and Technology has reportedly said clinical trials on favipiravir, an active ingredient of Avigan, have been completed. The trials using the drug as a treatment for Covid-19 reportedly showed “very good clinical results.”

Avigan, which is being developed by a subsidiary of camera maker Fujifilm, has licensed the patent for favipiravir to Chinese company Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical, according to an earlier report.

While Domingo appeared enthusiastic about the potential of Avigan, he was cautious about the use of another drug, Prodex-B, for treating Covid-19.

Domingo said Prodex- B is a drug combination of procaine and dexamethasone with vitamin B.

He said procaine is an anesthetic used

to reduce pain on injections while dexamethasone is a corticosteroid that must be used cautiously because of its side effects, which includes the weakening of the immune system.

“Furthermore, unregistered drug products have no guaranteed quality, safety and efficacy data which may lead to patient harm,” Domingo said.

Health authorities have recorded 1,418 confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country. Of this number, 71 patients have died and 42 have recovered.