Last week the British Medicines Agency approved molnupiravir, a tablet used to treat people with Covid-19. It is still being examined by the European Authority (EMA).
Scientists have now carried out a systematic analysis to determine how effective the antiviral drug is.
For this purpose, studies published by October 15, 2021 in the medical science databases PubMed, MedRxiv and Google Scholar were used. In addition, current clinical studies were recorded, reports the medical news page “DeutschesGesundheitsPortal”.
This showed that the active ingredient was well and safely tolerated, that virus activity stopped quickly in patients with mild to moderate disease, and that the risk of hospital admission or death was reduced by 50 percent. In the advanced stages of moderate to severe Covid 19 disease, however, the treatment showed no benefit.
Molnupiravir helps with mild Covid-19 course, but …
Result: Molnupiravir could play an important role in the treatment of mild Covid-19. In the case of more severe courses, however, it is still questionable whether the active ingredient can make a contribution to the therapy.
So far, the only corona drug approved in the EU is Remdesivir. On Thursday, the EMA cleared the way for the approval of two new drugs: the antibody therapy Ronapreve from the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche and the drug Regkirona from the manufacturer Celltrion from South Korea. Both are intended to help infected people who are at risk of serious disease.
The Pfizer corona pill Paxlovid and Regeneron with an antibody cocktail have recently raised high hopes with positive study results.
More drugs against Covid-19 needed
The National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina called in the middle of the week to intensify research into drugs against viruses. “The few existing drugs against Sars-CoV-2 are not enough,” said Leopoldina member Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff. According to the virologist, it is important to have highly effective active ingredients that can be used as early as possible after an infection to stop the virus from multiplying and spreading the pathogen.
Also with a view to future pandemics, according to Leopoldina, broadly effective drugs should be developed that work against different types of a virus family. The development of active ingredients should not only begin when a new pandemic virus has appeared – it should be promoted in advance.
And: The drugs should be easy to administer, effective and comparatively inexpensive.