Hungary has been selected as one of the first countries to get Avigan for treatment of Covid-19 patients and will run further clinical tests on the drug with the active ingredient favipiravir registered in Japan, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in a Facebook video on Saturday.
A shipment of 12,200 Avigan pills – enough to treat 100 patients – arrived in Hungary on Saturday morning, Szijjártó said, adding that the medicine had been sent to the research centre of the University of Pécs, in southern Hungary.
Avigan was registered in Japan as an influenza drug but has been found effective against the novel coronavirus.
Professor Gábor L Kovács said in the same video that the pills will be used for clinical tests on 100 Hungarian patients “under controlled conditions and with the utmost care”.