Favipiravir is an oral wide range inhibitor of viral RNA-subordinate RNA polymerase that is affirmed for treatment of flu in Japan. An open-Label, multicenter Trial of Early versus Late Favipiravir Therapy in Hospitalized Patients was conducted who were suffering from with COVID-19. The patients who participated in this therapy were adolescents and adults admitted with COVID-19 who were asymptomatic or mildly ill and had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0 or 1. 89 patients were enrolled, of whom sixty nine were virologically evaluable. The essential endpoint was viral freedom by day 6. The auxiliary endpoint was change in viral load by the sixth day.
Exploratory endpoints included opportunity to defervescence and revolution of symptoms. Viral clearance occurred within 6 days in 66.7% and 56.1% of the early and late treatment groups (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.42; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 0.76 to 2.62). As a result it was found that, During therapy, 84.1% developed transient hyperuricemia. Neither disease progression nor death occurred in any of the patients in either treatment group during the 28-day participation. Therefore to conclude, it won’t be wrong to say that, Favipiravir did not significantly improve viral clearance as measured by reverse transcription-PCR but was associated with numerical reduction in time to defervescence.
Ref link- https://aac.asm.org/content/64/12/e01897-20
