Molnupiravir will do its best to fight Covid, experts say

Questions have been raised about the safety of molnupiravir, an oral antiviral drug approved for the treatment of Covid-19, and Indian health experts say the benefits of this drug are potential risks in high-risk patients. It points out that it exceeds.

Developed by the US-based pharmaceutical company Merck, Molnupiravir has been approved for Covid-19 by the US Food and Drug Administration. The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved the treatment of mild to moderate Covid-19 in adults at high risk of progression to severe disease, primarily adults with pre-existing (comorbidity) conditions. ..

India has also approved the drug amid an increasing number of cases of the new Covid variant Omicron in India. An expert committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization recently approved the antiviral drug molnupiravir to limit its use in emergencies. Antiviral drugs are manufactured by 13 companies in India.

However, Ballam Bhargava, Secretary of the Indian Medical Research Council (ICMR), said Molnupiravir is a national Covid task due to major safety concerns such as teratogenicity, mutagenicity, muscle and bone damage. He said it was not included in the force treatment.

“More importantly, if the drug is given to men and women, the child born can be problematic due to the effects of teratogenicity, so contraception must be done for three months,” he said. Said at a press conference.

Health professionals, meanwhile, point out that the benefits of this drug outweigh the potential risks that patients at high risk may have.

However, drug options for treating Covid patients are so limited that new approved drugs should be tried under strict treatment planning protocols, they say.

“Physicians need to remember the patient’s profile when prescribing the drug. The patient is at high risk over the age of 60, is obese, has cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and / Or if you have a chronic lung or kidney or liver illness, then if not treated when the illness is mild or moderate, it can cause extreme changes, putting the patient at risk of hospitalization and delta It can even be fatal, as we saw at the time of the mutation, “said Dr. Deepak Talwar, senior lung consultant, sleeping pills, and president of the Metro Respiratory Center.

“We need to use available treatments rather than counting their side effects, which is also potential but unknown,” he added.

According to Dr. Dhruva Chaudhry, director of lung and emergency medicine at Rohtak’s PGIMS, the US FDA and DCGI examined safety data for the drug while granting approval. “Once satisfied, the drug was approved.”

“Even in Phase 3 clinical trials, molnupiravir showed a significant reduction in the risk of hospitalization or death when compared to the placebo group, without any observed safety concerns,” said Chaudhry.

Molnupiravir inhibits the replication of certain RNA viruses. It is primarily used to treat Covid-19-infected individuals over the age of 50 and those with multiple comorbidities. The recommended dose of molnupiravir 800 mg is twice daily for 5 days. The patient should take 40 capsules containing 200 mg of the drug.

More than 12 pharmaceutical companies, including Torrent, Cipla, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy’s, Natco, Mylan and Hetero, are making oral pills. Cipla, Sun Pharma, and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories will also release Mornupiravir capsules in the coming weeks.

–IANS

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