VV116, A New Antiviral Drug for COVID-19 Shows Promising Results in Phase 3 Trials
There has been a significant effort to develop antiviral drugs specifically for COVID-19, with many companies, academic institutions, and research centers working on developing, testing, and distributing the treatments. The biopharmaceutical industry has been at the forefront of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of the antiviral drugs that have been authorized or approved for emergency use include remdesivir, favipiravir, and molnupiravir.
Reportedly, a new antiviral drug known as VV116 has emerged as a strong competitor to Paxlovid in treating mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19.
This drug was tested in a Phase 3 trial in China in May 2022, and the study was conducted by multiple hospitals affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and was sponsored by Vigonvita Life Sciences. It was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The drug has been manufactured by pharmaceutical companies — Junshi Biosciences and Vigonvita Life Sciences, as a joint venture.
According to the study, the VV116 pill had little to no side effects as compared to Paxlovid when administered to high-risk patients.
Interestingly, the study showed that the drug can perform well also when taken with other medications, such as those used for treating insomnia and high blood pressure.
According to Ren Zhao, co-author of the study and a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, the trial of VV116 covid antiviral pill was deemed as a “great success”.
The Clinical Trial of VV116
In the clinical trial of VV116, 380 people participated as volunteers and took the medication for five consecutive days. A parallel group with a similar number of 380 participants took Paxlovid medication.
It was found that people with mild COVID-19 symptoms, who were administered VV116 recovered in four days as compared to the ones who took Paxlovid, who took five days to recover.
People administered with VV116 reported about 10% less side effects than people who were given Paxlovid. It was also found that there were fewer patients with high or elevated levels of fat.
When it comes to specific side effects, 26% of the participants who took Paxlovid reported a change in the sense of taste; food tasted sour, sweet, bitter, or metallic, whereas, on the other hand, just 4% of people who took VV116 reported the taste altering experience.
It was found that Paxlovid can cause liver damage because it contains a medication known as ritonavir, and it can cause adverse reactions in patients who already have liver problems.
About 98% of the total patients given either Paxlovid or VV116 had recovered completely within 28 days, and none developed severe COVID-19 again the findings showed.
Conclusion
Antivirals are crucial for restraining the novel coronavirus from spreading and replicating into different variants. The U.S. medical experts aim to study the drug more extensively by conducting clinical trials on a larger and more diverse group. More trials will help closely observe rare side effects of the drug and examine how the drug will protect against new Omicron subvariants.
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