As long as there is no vaccine, epidemiologists warn that the new coronavirus will have to be lived. As countries begin their respective de-escalations after different forms of confinement and quarantine, concerns about the effects they might have on successive SARS-CoV-2 waves on public health and the economy. Distance and hygiene measures, experts warn, are key to flattening the pandemic curve.
The so-called “new normal,” however, is hopelessly accompanied by the daily battle against Covid-19 in hospitals around the world. The goal, in better or worse conditions, is always the same: saving lives. But what’s the best alternative to doing it? In parallel with the search for a vaccine, a global pharmaceutical career is being developed to find the most effective medicines when it comes to treating the sick. The efforts of scientific research are titanic, but the unknowns are still enormous.
This is a list of drugs that today are presented as most promising against the virus.
Afivavir (or favipiravir)
Russia has announced the registration of the first specific drug for the treatment of COVID-19: afivavir, developed from the Japanese antiviral favipiravir. This drug is used in Japan against influenza. Its activity is especially intense in the respiratory tract, decreasing the viral load to non-infectious levels. In China, Wuhan University also conducted a study of this drug.
Although it is not marketed in Europe or the United States, Italy has authorized its use. The Moscow pass means that from June 11 it will be available in Russian hospitals to perform 60,000 treatments.
Hydroxychloroquine
Until six months ago, very few had heard of it, but hydroxychloroquine has the dubious honor of having starred in the first major scientific scandal of the pandemic. The prestigious scientific journal The Lancet published a study that associated its use with an increased risk of death. In response, several clinical trials were halted to demonstrate its effectiveness against coronavirus, including WHO. But within days, doubts began to arise about the study data provided by Chicago-based Surgisphere. The authors of The Lancet’s own studies and The New England Journal of Medicine have called for their withdrawal because of suspicions about the data.
WHO has now resumed its clinical trial, which in the coming weeks should clarify whether treatment is safe and effective.
Remdesivir
The European Medicines Agency evaluates the clinical results of the product called remdesivir presented by the US laboratory Gilead Sciences. If given the go-ahead, European Union countries would join the decision made a few weeks ago by Donald Trump’s us held government in the United States, which has already given emergency authorization to this drug.
Remdesivir appears to be the most promising medicine of the many that have been tested against the pandemic. It is a retroviral that has been experimentally tested in the past against other viral pathogens such as Ebola, Marburg virus, MERS or SARS.
Famotidine
Could a widely available and economical medicine against heartburn become an effective treatment for Covid-19? A study of a small number of cases published in the journal “Gut” suggests that famotidine could be a good candidate to fight infection with the virus in patients whose cad that does not require hospital admission.
Aplidin
Aplidin is another hope, in this case of Spanish origin, against SARS-CoV-2, although it was initially devised to treat multiple myeloma. Its active substance is plitidespine. Specifically, aplidin does not act on the coronavirus, but on the protein eEF1A, present in the body and used by Covid-19 for its spread. The bad: Pharmamar itself estimates that the drug will not be available until 2021. The company’s CEO, Luis Mora, has however spoken of “astonishing” results and announced that he plans to bring the trials to the U.S., as well as assured that “the antiviral power of aplidin is a thousand times superior” than that of Gilead’s remdesivir, his great rival in this global pharmaceutical race.
Lopinavir and ritonavir
Lopinavir and ritonavir belong to a class of medicines called protease inhibitors. In combinacwith other medicines, these two antiretrovirals are used to treat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. WHO is conducting a clinical trial of the efficacy of these two drugs with interferon beta-1a, a drug used against multiple sclerosis. On the other hand, a study from the University of Hong Kong suggests that the combination of interferon beta-1b (also against multiple sclerosis), lopinavir, ritonavir and ribavirin (a useful antiretroviral against hepatitis) is more effective at relieving symptoms and reducing the removal time of SARS-CoV-2 viruses.
Zotatifina
Zotatifina is on the list of 47 existing drugs that could help combat Covid-19, as announced this second week of June 2020 scientists at the University of California. As explained by the laboratory that produces this molecule, eFFECTOR Therapeutics, zotafin (originally created against cancer) does not attack the virus, but acts on the cells that the new coronavirus hijacks. According to Californian researchers, both zotatifin and ternatine-4 “seem to fight Covid-19 by binding to the proteins the cell needs to translate and inhibit them.”
