Could it be the breakthrough treatment? Molnupiravir was developed to treat the flu, but caused a sensation when it was shown to be effective against COVID-19. Now the World Health Organization says it’s looking to issue guidance for its use.
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so far vaccination has been the only effective Medical Response to the Corona virus there hasn’t been a drug to treat the disease now m purvia is Raising hopes that covid-19 can be cured one existing medicine after another was tried during the pandemic none was found to be truly effective this time researchers are cautiously optimistic could it be the Breakthrough treat I’m Ben fulan welcome mle new premier was developed to treat the flu but caused a sensation when it was shown to be effective against covid-19 now the World Health Organization says it’s looking to issue guidance for its use the US company behind the drug MC known worldwide as MSD has applied for approval in its home country and says it can make 10 million courses by the end of the year it’s a small capsule that’s raising High Hopes molo PIR is the first potential prescription pill for covid-19 its manufacturer us pharmaceutical giant Merkin company says it’s of particular benefit to unvaccinated patients with underlying conditions in Trials the drug cut hospitalizations and deaths by half having a pill that people can take it home when you know that they’re high risk and they’ve caught covid that has the possibility to be transformational this is one of those tools in the toolbox that we have just been lacking so far since the pandemic began scientists have been working to develop an antiviral medicine that patients can take at home so far the only treatments approved in the US have to be administered intravenously or by injection they are also very expensive virologists warn however that molo pavir is not a Magic Bullet although we’re pleased and optimistic about this drug which is now applying for emergency use authorization it should not be a substitute for preventing infection in the first place which is why we get vaccines the US drugs Authority the FDA could approve the medication in the next few weeks just in time before winter accelerates covid-19 infection rates once again for more let’s talk to Simon Clark he’s a microbiologist at the University of reading in the UK tell us what you think about this new possible breakthrough treatment I think it’s a very exciting uh treatment a very exciting and interesting way of administering an ability for doctors to block the virus from replicating and therefore causing a more severe infection so um we don’t have a huge amount of antiviral medicines compared to the sort of more traditional antibiotics which of course do not work against uh viral infections so this is a a a a very exciting very interesting uh new therapy which should be I would expect useful against other infections as well can you tell us exactly how it works how how it manages to block the virus so when the virus is replicated inside our cells because our cells act like Min factories for making new virus um this chemical introduces changes to the genetic code and that stops IT being replicated basically um and if you can’t produce more genetic code more genetic material you can’t have more virus so um that’s how it works um and like I said I expect it will work with other things we hear that it was originally uh uh developed for treatment of flu but I think it’s a it’s got potential other applications as well what about the time window within which it has to be applied to the patient I I know it can’t be used too early or too late can it no have to have what is called mild to moderate symptoms um and uh we’re not exactly sure what that means uh but there is a fairly it seems a fairly tight window if you if you give it to somebody too late then they’re not going to be uh to be able to benefit from it and if you give it to them too early that could cause problems as well um it really does depend on getting the the timing right and we’ve seen that with other treatments as well the steroid treatments that we see which also reduced the numbers of deaths in intensive care units quite significantly Simon just how successful has it been shown to be in in medical trials uh so in highrisk people uh administered at the right time it reduces their their risk of death by about half um so of course not everybody who who uh who is high risk is going to die from covid-19 and not everybody who dies from covid-19 is high risk if that makes sense so it’s difficult to know exactly um how those numbers will fall but you to take uh or to reduce the risk for the the highest the most vulnerable people by half is a substantial uh chunk to take out of this um so it’s not a silver bullet it’s not a cure but it will save an awful lot a lot of lives and is there enough of it I mean uh manufacturers are cranking up the machines will there enough M to to treat people uh eventually yes so in the short term my understanding was that uh um a lot of the production had already been reserved and bought out by certain countries um of course uh mmsd might uh might um uh be able to increase production substantially and that will mean they’ll be able to supply more people but there will be huge demand for this uh and there will be I suspect a lot of complaining from some quarters particularly the developing world that they don’t have access or sufficient access to this drug is there any way of of getting around that well just to produce more but of course uh the production facilities um the the uh the the the substrates the chemicals that go into making this medicine uh you know there is only so much of that available around the world so there are Supply bottlenecks inevitably I would be very surprised urised if if M MSD are just able to turn on the Taps and satisfy everybody’s demand in the short term even if they wanted to do which I’m sure they would but uh life isn’t that simple no it’s not Simon uh one last thing looking at the bigger picture where will this put us in in the fight against the virus uh in in ending the pandemic well it will take a substantial number of people out of death statistics basically it will mean that it saves an awful a lot of lives but I’ll remind you that over a year ago we we hit upon treating people in intensive care with dexamethasone that saved about onethird of people who would otherwise have died but we still had enormous outbreaks we still had uh lots of people filling up our intensive care Wards right across the world uh and I don’t think that this medicine will in itself stop that from happening but it will save an awful lot of lives in itself so what are you alluding to are there other drugs in the PIP Pine that you’re hopeful about there are other drugs in the pipeline yes and people will be developing things all the time um but of course this this medicine is not active not not not efficacious in everybody it needs to be remembered it is not a guarantee of success it’s not a a really a viable alternative to a vaccine Simon Clark there for us talking about the effects and the hopes for monu prier a very um a treatment for covid-19 which uh a lot of people are holding out hopes for Simon Clark’s a microbiologist at the University of reading in the UK thank you for your time you’re welcome mean by the World Health Organization has granted emergency use authorization to Indian drug maker Barat biotech’s homegrown covid-19 vaccine the who’s backing paves the way for covaccine to be accepted in many other countries and allows India to donate it to the global Kovac effort the decision also makes it easier for Indians who’ve received the jab to travel abroad India already granted emergency authorization in January and it’s become the second most widely used covid-19 vaccine in the country it’s the seventh Corona virus jab to win wh approval our science correspondent Derek Williams now and an important question about getting the covid vaccine if I already had covid-19 why should I get vaccinated for a simple reason because the evidence is convincing that getting vaccinated even if you had covid-19 reduces the chances that you might get it again um scientists have looked long and hard at at whether immune protection is stronger or more lasting in those who had the disease or in those who’ve been vaccinated and a new large scale study published last week by the CDC in the US seems to have answered that question it found that unvaccinated people with a previous infection were five times more likely to later come down with covid again than people who were vaccinated now it’s still not clear how well those results will hold up over time the probabilities could change in the coming months and years um for example if immune protection from vaccines ends up waning in a in a big way but but right now at least it’s comforting to know that the vaccines that so many of us have received at least protect us from infections in the short term even better than having had covid-19 would which is why a lot of healthcare authorities now also encourage people people who had the disease and recovered to go ahead and get vaccinated anyway um in some countries they recommend both shots post infection in others they recommend just one shot um getting vaccinated after recovering even appears to provoke a a turbocharged immune response that that researchers are calling hybrid immunity or or super immunity because those people have extremely high levels of the antibodies that protect against the virus and just today after the US approved Corona virus vaccinations for kids aged between 5 to 11 they’ve started getting the jab like here at a school in Ohio where pupils have been receiving pediatric doses of the bch fiser vaccine along with superhero Badges and some snacks while the risk for children is much lower than for other age groups they can still spread the virus so with infection numbers growing increasing the number of people who are vaccinated is key to slowing the pandemic the US territory of Puerto Rico is going a step further and saying the jab will be mandatory for School attendance nice to have you along stay safe and see you again soon bye-bye [Music]
