China Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council held a press conference on March 17. Director of Biology Center of Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China- Zhang Xinmin introduced that the clinical study of Favipiravir has been completed, which shows a good clinical efficacy.
In terms of safety, Favipiravir has been approved by PMDA of Japan in 2014 and there is no obvious adverse reaction found since marketing. In the clinical study for the treatment of COVID-19(Corona Virus Disease 2019), no obvious adverse reaction has been found.
In terms of efficacy, the Third People’s Hospital of Shenzhen carried out an efficacy and safety study for the treatment of COVID-19 with Favipiravir combined with interferon. This study has enrolled 80 subjects including 35 subjects of Favipiravir group and 45 subjects of control group. The study result shows, in the aspect of transforming the viral nucleic acid into negative, the median time of Favipiravir group (4 days) has been shortened compared with control group (11 days) with a significant difference. In terms of improvement in chest imaging, the improvement rates of Favipiravir group and control group are 91.43% and 62.22% respectively.
Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University led a multi-center, randomized, open and positive parallel controlled clinical study of Favipiravir for the treatment of COVID-19, and has enrolled 120 subjects of each group and observed clinical treatment. This clinical study displayed the therapeutic efficacy of treatment group on COVID-19 was significantly better than that of control group. In terms of primary endpoint assessment, the clinical recovery rate in common type subjects of treatment group was significantly better than that of control group (71.43% and 55.86% respectively) at the end of treatment. In terms of secondary endpoint assessment, average antifebrile time of treatment group and control group was 2.5 days and 4.2 days, which means the treatment group is better. The time in relieving cough of treatment group was also significantly better than that of control group, with the average time of relieving cough 4.57 days and 5.98 days respectively. In the auxiliary oxygen treatment or noninvasive mechanical ventilation rate of common type subjects during the therapy, the treatment group was significantly lower than control group, respectively with 8.16% and 17.12%. The assessments above all have statistical differences between the two groups.
In terms of accessibility, a domestic enterprise has obtained drug registration certificate from NMPA this February and achieve mass production. Therefore, the supply of clinical drug could be guaranteed.
This article is translated from The Beijing News.