Favipiravir (Favipira) clinical trials

Study on Safety and Efficacy of Favipiravir (Favipira) for COVID-19 Patient in Selected Hospitals of Bangladesh

A recent outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the novel coronavirus designated as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) started in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019. The clinical characteristics of COVID-19 include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, dyspnea, and pneumonia. As of 25 February 2020, at least 77 785 cases and 2666 deaths had been identified across China and in other countries; in particular, 977 and 861 cases were identified in South Korea and Japan, respectively. The outbreak has already caused global alarm. On 30 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), and issued advice in the form of temporary recommendations under the International Health Regulations (IHR).It has been revealed that SARS-CoV-2 has a genome sequence that is 75%-80% identical to that of SARS-CoV, and has more similarities to several bat coronaviruses. SARS-CoV-2 is the seventh reported human-infecting member of the family Coronaviridae, which also includes SARS-CoV and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV. It has been identified as the causative agent of COVID-19. Both the clinical and the epidemiological features of COVID-19 patients demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 infection can lead to intensive care unit (ICU) admission and high mortality. About 16%-21% of people with the virus in China have become severely ill, with a 2%-3% mortality rate. However, there is no specific treatment against the new virus. Therefore, it is urgently necessary to identify effective antiviral agents to combat the disease and explore the clinical effect of antiviral drugs. One efficient approach to discover effective drugs is to test whether the existing antiviral drugs are effective in treating other related viral infections. Several drugs, such as ribavirin, interferon (IFN), Favipiravir (FPV), and Lopinavir (LPV)/ritonavir (RTV), have been used in patients with SARS or MERS, although the efficacy of some drugs remains controversial. It has recently been demonstrated that, as a prodrug, Favipiravir (half maximal effective concentration (EC50) = 61.88 μmol·L−1, half-maximal cytotoxic concentration (CC50) > 400 μmol·L−1, selectivity index (SI) > 6.46) effectively inhibits the SARS-CoV-2 infection in Vero E6 cells (ATCC-1586). Furthermore, other reports show that FPV is effective in protecting mice against Ebola virus challenge, although its EC50 value in Vero E6 cells was as high as 67 μmol·L−1. Therefore, clinical studies are urgently needed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this antiviral nucleoside for COVID-19 treatment. After enrollment of the patients (day 1) depending on inclusion and exclusion criteria and laboratory findings confirming the presence of the COVID-19 virus, 25 patients will receive Favipiravir plus standard treatment and the second group of 25 patients will receive standard treatment only. The comparison of the findings of the follow up studies on days 4, 7, and 10 in terms of clinical manifestations, chest X-ray and laboratory findings, such as Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) results for viral presence will determine whether Favipiravir has safety and efficacy against COVID-19 infections. All ethical issues related to this trial including right of the participants to withdraw from the study should be maintained according to of guidelines of International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH)-Good Clinical Practice (GCP).