Favipiravir positive studies in China to treat coronavirus.-Zhejiang Hisun Pharma

Recently preliminary results of the "Clinical Study on Favipiravir's Safety and Effectiveness to COVID-19 Patients" led by the Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen were released at a press conference held by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the P.R.C. In this study, it shows that Favipiravir alleviated the pneumonia symptom of COVID-19 patients with high tolerance and few adverse reactions , potentially through a mechanism that can quickly eliminate the coronaviruses from their bodies. Significant clinical differences have been observed between the 35-patient experimental group treated with Favipiravir and the 45-patient control group treated with Lopinavir / Ritonavir. The medians of the virus clearance time were 4 days (2.5 ~ 9 days) and 11 days (8 ~ 13 days), respectively (P < 0.001); the posttreatment fever-allaying rates within 2 days were 72.41% versus 26.30%; while the chest-imaging improvement rates were 91.43% versus 62.22%. Notably, the adverse reaction rates of Favipiravir-treated patients were merely 11.43%, comparing to a 55.56% in the control group. Another clinical trial led by the Zhongnan Hospital (Wuhan, China), with 120 COVID-19 patients recruited in both experimental group (favipiravir) and control group (abidole), also showed that the effectiveness in experimental group was significantly better than that in the control group, which was 71.43% and 55.86%, respectively. The same significant advantage went to the average antipyretic and cough remission time. Moreover, Favipiravir comes in a tablet form, making for easier application. Together these studies indicated the clinical efficacy and safety of Favipiravir, bringing hope to countries suffering from the epidemic.