15/11/2021
[๐ต๐ญ Philippines] We are glad to make available ๐๐จ๐ฅ๐ง๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ข๐ซ๐๐ฏ๐ข๐ซ, the first oral antiviral approved for the treatment of COVID-19 under ๐พ๐ค๐ข๐ฅ๐๐จ๐จ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐๐ฉ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐ก ๐๐๐ง๐ข๐๐ฉ (contact us to find out more).
It can be taken at home for mild to moderate COVID-19 infection upon prescription from a licensed physician. It reduces the risk of hospitalisation or death by approximately 50% as observed in clinical trials.
๐ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ฑ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ ๐ ๐ผ๐น๐ป๐๐ฝ๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ฟ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ธ?
Molnupiravir works by disrupting the virus' reproduction. Once the virus gets inside the body's cells, it replicates its genome. These replicated genomes are then formed into complete virus particles which burst out of the cell and continue to spread around the body. The molecules of Molnupiravir are absorbed by virus-infected cells, where they are converted into a defective version of the building blocks of RNA. When the virus tries to replicate, the resulting virus particles have defective genetic material and can no longer reproduce. This means that the viral load should remain low, which reduces the risk of serious disease.
๐ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ฒ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ ๐ ๐ผ๐น๐ป๐๐ฝ๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ฟ?
In the clinical trial consisting of 775 patients who had recently caught COVID-19, only 7.3% of those given Molnupiravir were hospitalised, compared to 14.1% of patients who were given a placebo. There were 0 deaths in the Molnupiravir group, but 8 patients who were given a placebo in the trial later died of COVID-19.
Furthermore, since Molnupiravir targets the RNA that SARS-CoV-2 uses as its building blocks, it should be equally effective against all coronavirus variants.