China Says This Drug Is “Clearly Effective” Against Coronavirus

 According to Japanese media, Chinese medical authorities have found that a drug called "favipiravir" has shown promise in treating COVID-19 patients.

ACCORDING TO A NEW STUDY, IT CAN TURN CORONAVIRUS TESTS NEGATIVE IN JUST FOUR DAYS.

 The Chinese government says it has officially decided to use the Japanese-developed anti-influenza drug Avigan in treating people infected with the new coronavirus.

Zhang Xinmin, director of the National Center for Biotechnology Development, said at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday that the drug was found to be effective in clinical trials by two medical organizations in the country.

The director said the tests were conducted in the cities of Wuhan and Shenzhen and involved 240 patients and 80 patients respectively.

He said that the tests in Wuhan found that it took an average of 2.5 days for the temperature of those who were given Avigan to return to normal. It took 4.2 days for those who weren't given the drug.

He added that patients who were given the medicine were able to get rid of their cough in an average of 4.57 days, compared with 5.98 days for those who were not given it. He added that medicine had no obvious side effects.

In tests in Shenzhen, the director said those who were given the medicine after testing positive for the virus turned negative after a median of four days, while it took a median of 11 days for those without the drug.

The trial also found that X-ray photos confirmed improvements in lung conditions in about 91 percent of the patients who were given the medicine. The number stood at 62 percent for those who weren't given it.

According to Japanese media, Chinese medical authorities have found that an antiviral drug called “favipiravir” has shown promise in treating COVID-19 patients, The Guardian reports.

“It has a high degree of safety and is clearly effective in treatment,” Zhang Xinmin, an official at China’s science and technology ministry, told reporters on Tuesday.

The drug has been used in the past to fight an outbreak of the Ebola virus in Guinea. Its developer has yet to comment on the claims made by the Chinese authorities.

The drug, known also by its market name Avigan and developed by a Japanese Fujifilm subsidiary called Fujifilm Toyama Chemical, was reportedly able to turn COVID-19 tests negative for those who were infected after just four days as part of a trial involving 240 patients from Wuhan, China, and 80 patients in Shenzhen.

Without treatment, the median time was 11 days, according to The Guardian.

The drug also appeared to improve lung condition in 91 percent of patients, compared to just 62 percent whose lung conditions improved without the drug.

But it’s far from perfect at stopping the spread of the deadly virus.

“We’ve given Avigan to 70 to 80 people, but it doesn’t seem to work that well when the virus has already multiplied,” an unnamed Japanese health ministry source told the Japanese media, as quoted by The Guardian.

China Says This Drug Is “Clearly Effective” Against Coronavirus: