Is the anti-flu drug Avigan effective in treating COVID-19?

An experimental new study has recently tested the efficacy of favipiravir (Avigan) for treating COVID-19.

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Recently, there has been much media speculation around the Japanese anti-flu drug favipiravir (brand name Avigan) being effective against SARS-CoV-2. This is the virus that causes COVID-19.

This is because Chinese officials announced in a press conference that the drug could effectively treat this virus.

Since then, the results of one of the two clinical trials that the Chinese officials cited have become available. We take a look at the findings and explain why people must interpret them with caution.

Qingxian Cai, of the National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases at The Third People’s Hospital of Shenzhen in China, is the first author of the paper, which now appears in the journal Engineering.

As Cai and colleagues explain in their paper, the need for effective antiviral agents capable of combating COVID-19 is dire.

In this context, an efficient approach for drug discovery seems to be to test existing antiviral drugs and see whether or not they are suitable for repurposing.

Healthcare professionals have previously used drugs such as ribavirin, interferon, favipiravir, and lopinavir/ritonavir to treat severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome. These are diseases caused by other coronaviruses. However, the efficacy of some of these drugs is questionable, warn the researchers.

That said, past studies that Cai and team cite in their paper have shown that favipiravir, the anti-flu drug, successfully inhibits SARS-Cov-2 in some cultured cells and protects mice against Ebola.

So, the scientists set out to test the results of treating SARS-Cov-2 using favipiravir, and to compare its efficacy with that of lopinavir/ritonavir.

Lopinavir is an HIV inhibitor that emerged as a potential treatment for the SARS outbreak in 2003. Manufacturers often add ritonavir to lopinavir t