Treatment of patients with favipiravir can start in Hungary

The recent announcement of Japanese clinical trials showing that the generic drug favipiravir is successful in treating Covid-19 patients is reassuring from the point of Hungarian drug development, and it will enable the treatment of patients with the drug to start in Hungary, a ministry of innovation and technology official said.

The ministry launched over twenty development programmes during the first phase of the epidemic, and the Hungarian development of the Japanese antiviral drug is led by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Research Centre for Natural Sciences and the University of Pécs’s Faculty of Science, state secretary Tamas Schanda said in a statement.

The clinical study of patients in Japan showed that patients treated with Avigan, a drug containing the active ingredient favipiravir, reduced recovery times for Covid-19 patients with non-severe symptoms and, over 12 days, prevented such clinical symptoms as high fever and difficulty of breathing, the statement added.

Gábor L Kovács, the head of the Hungarian consortium HECRIN, which is in charge of clinical testing of favirapir in Hungary, said Avigan had successfully prevented the deterioration of patient’s condition and made it unnecessary to start intensive therapeutic treatment. Since the consortium has acquired the necessary licences for clinical testing of Avigan in Hungary, the use of the drug supplied by the Foreign Ministry and the Japanese government can begin in Hungary, the ministry said.

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