New coronavirus drug may have clinical trials in Kingdom
Russia’s sovereign wealth fund in talks with Saudi partners after developing treatment that ‘shows high efficacy’
Russia has developed a promising new treatment for COVID-19 that could undergo clinical trials in Saudi Arabia. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the country’s sovereign wealth fund, will unveil the new drug, Avifavir, at a virtual press conference in Moscow on Monday. RDIF said the drug had “shown high efficacy in treating patients with coronavirus during clinical trials,” and had received a registration certificate from the Russian Health Ministry.
Kirill Dmitriev, the RDIF chief expartners, ecutive, told Arab News: “We are in talks with our Saudi partners about possible supplies of
Avifavir to Saudi
Arabia. We shared with them the positive results of clinical trials in Russia. Our partners expressed interest in starting a clinical trial of Avifavir in the Kingdom.”
“Avifavir is not only the first antiviral drug registered against coronavirus in Russia, but it is also perhaps the most promising anti-COVID-19 drug in the world. It was developed and tested in clinical trials in Russia in an unprecedentedly short period of time.” Avifavir proved to be highly effective during the clinical trials by I. M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Lomonosov Moscow State University and other medical and academic institutions, RDIF said. The final stage of trials on 330 patients is ongoing with the approval of the Russian Ministry of Health. It was developed by RDIF in partnership with Chemrar, a Russian pharmaceuticals research and development group.
RDIF has invested significant resources into anti-COVID-19 measures since the outbreak of the pandemic, developing a high-speed testing kit along with Japanese as well other diagnostic and support systems.
It is believed to be working on a vaccine against the virus which could soon be unveiled, according to Moscow sources.