translated from Spanish: China claims Japanese flu drug has “high effectiveness” against coronavirus

A Japanese drug developed by Fujifilm Toyama Chemical and used for the treatment of influenza has shown “clear effectiveness” in dealing with the new coronavirus, chinese government reported on Wednesday. Beijing, which has recommended the use of the drug, known as favipiravir and sold under the trade name Avigan, has conducted a series of experiments involving 200 patients with Covid-19 patients in Wuhan, the epicenter of the pandemic.” It is very safe and clearly effective,” said Zhang Xinmin, director of the National Development and Biotechnology Scepter of the Asian giant’s Ministry of Science, during a press conference. The drug was developed by the Japanese company in 2014 and has been administered to coronavirus-infected patients in Japan since February. Although Tokyo has been more reserved in expressing its effectiveness, the Chinese government has received the news more positively. The results of the experiments conducted in Wuhan show that patients undergoing the trials tested negative for coronavirus in a shorter time than the rest, while their symptoms of pneumonia were significantly reduced. Patients given favipiravir tested negative after an average of four days compared to the eleven days taken by another group that was not subjected to this drug, as explained by Zhang, according to information collected by the local newspaper ‘ Nikkei’. Another experiment in Wuhan reveals that patients treated with favipiravir recovered from the fever within 2.5 days compared to 4.2 that took the other patients. Symptoms such as a dry cough also disappeared 1.4 days earlier than those who did not take the medicine. However, Japan has been reluctant to use it – which it has reserved for times of crisis or outbreakof influenza virus – because several studies indicate that there are indications that it could cause fetal malformations and miscarriages or be transmitted to through the semen. South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Medicine, for its part, decided not to import the Avigan after a group of infectious disease experts stated that there was insufficient clinical data to support the drug’s effectiveness.

Original source in Spanish