The media reported that a drug for COVID-19, a disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, has appeared in Brazil. What is known about this preparation and its effects? Does this news mark a breakthrough in the fight against the pandemic?
Brazil’s minister of science and technology, Marcos Pontes, announced on Wednesday (15.04/94) that the country’s scientists have developed a 19 percent effective drug against COVID-94. He also revealed that during in vitro tests, the new pharmacological agent showed XNUMX%. effectiveness in combating the coronavirus. According to the researchers, this drug has very few side effects.
Brazil invented a cure for COVID-19?
It is known that the drug was released in a laboratory in Sao Paulo.
As reported, the first tests of the new preparation on people suffering from COVID-19 will start in the next few days. They are to last four weeks.
“Research on the new drug will be conducted in seven hospitals in our country on a total of 500 people infected with the coronavirus,” said Marcos Pontes, adding that he cannot disclose the name of the preparation until the tests begin. “In this way, we will avoid an unnecessary race for this measure at the moment,” he added.
All the information sounds very promising and very enigmatic at the same time. I asked Aleksandra Mościcka-Studzińska – pharmacy and biotechnology coordinator at the National Center for Research and Development to explain it.
As he explains, it is one of the known drugs that has so far had a different use.
“According to information from the Brazilian Minister of Science and Technology, Brazilian scientists have tested 2 drugs already authorized for use in indications other than COVID-19 therapy. They selected 6 interesting molecules that inhibit viral replication. One of them in in vitro tests, ie in cell culture conditions, inhibited the multiplication of the virus in 94%. It is reported that the clinical trial protocol is currently approved and that the first 500 patients are to start testing in the coming days »
As Mościcka-Studzińska explains, keeping the name of the drug secret has a very specific reason.
The name of the drug was deliberately not disclosed to the public in order not to buy drugs from pharmacies. As noted by the Minister of Science and Technology, it is a cheap, well-tolerated drug, also available in forms for children. Due to the confidentiality of the works, it is difficult to refer to this report in more detail.
As the NCBR expert explains, it is worth noting that the information about the new drug appeared at a time when the hopes related to chloroquine failed.
«Perhaps this time the researchers focused on drugs for the treatment of HIV or Ebola. However, we cannot count on a breakthrough as long as we do not receive information about the results of clinical trials, the in vitro studies conducted so far do not guarantee the same results in humans »- explains Mościcka-Studzińska.
Find out more:
- Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine. What about the side effects of drugs tested to treat COVID-19?
- Wrocław: the first patient qualified for the study of the influence of chloroquine on the course of coronavirus infection
- Blood stations begin to take plasma from healers. Transfusion can help people with severe COVID-19
- Antimalarial drug to treat COVID-19? French scientists are looking for answers
Have a question about the coronavirus? Send them to the following address: [email protected]. You will find a daily updated list of answers HERE: Coronavirus – frequently asked questions and answers.