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New oral anti-viral drug can block COVID-19 transmission within 24 hours

New oral anti-viral drug can block COVID-19 transmission within 24 hours
COVID-19 patients treated with the drug could become non-infectious within 24 hours after the beginning of treatment.

Researchers have found that treatment of COVID-19 infection with a new anti-viral drug, Molnupiravir, suppresses virus transmission within 24 hours.

Written by Jahnavi Sarma |Published : December 5, 2020 2:23 PM IST

Scientists are constantly trying to find a solution to stop the COVID-19 virus in its tracks. They are looking at old and existing drugs and also trying to find new medication that can halt the transmission of the virus from people to people. Till now, it was mostly precautionary measures like social distancing, avoiding contact with infected people and wearing of face masks that were prescribed for this purpose. But now, experts may have found a way to prevent transmission even if you may be in contact with infected people. This new study holds immense promise especially for healthcare workers and caretakers of infected patients who are constantly exposed to the virus.

Treatment of COVID-19 infection with a new anti-viral drug, MK-4482/EIDD-2801 or Molnupiravir, completely suppresses virus transmission within 24 hours, researchers in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University have discovered. The group originally discovered that the drug is potent against influenza viruses. According to researchers, this is the first demonstration of an orally available drug to rapidly block SARS-CoV-2 transmission. They believe that MK-4482/EIDD-2801 could emerge to be a game-changer.

Three-fold benefit of the drug

Interrupting widespread community transmission of COVID-19 until mass vaccination is available is paramount to managing COVID-19 and mitigating the catastrophic consequences of the pandemic. Because the drug can be taken by mouth, treatment can be started early for a potentially three-fold benefit:

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  • Inhibit patients' progress to severe disease
  • Shorten the infectious phase to ease the emotional socioeconomic toll of prolonged patient isolation
  • Rapidly silence local outbreaks.

Researchers noted early on that MK-4482/EIDD-2801 has broad-spectrum activity against respiratory RNA viruses and that treating infected animals by mouth with the drug lowers the amount of shed viral particles by several orders of magnitude, dramatically reducing transmission. These properties made MK-4482/EIDD/2801 a powerful candidate for pharmacologic control of COVID-19.

No transmission seen in study

In the study published in Nature Microbiology, the research team repurposed MK-4482/EIDD-2801 against COVID-19 and used a ferret model to test the effect of the drug on halting virus spread. Ferrets are a relevant transmission model because they readily spread SARS-CoV-2, but mostly do not develop severe disease, which closely resembles SARS-CoV-2 spread in young adults. The researchers infected ferrets with SARS-CoV-2 and initiated treatment with MK-4482/EIDD-2801 when the animals started to shed virus from the nose. When they co-housed those infected and then treated source animals with untreated contact ferrets in the same cage, none of the contacts became infected. By comparison, all contacts of source ferrets that had received placebo became infected.

Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials on

If these ferret-based data translate to humans, COVID-19 patients treated with the drug could become non-infectious within 24 hours after the beginning of treatment. MK-4482/EIDD-2801 is in advanced phase II/III clinical trials against SARS-CoV-2 infection.

(With inputs from Agencies)