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Antibody therapies have drawbacks. They are expensive and should be given by infusion or injection. This makes them poor opportunities in many low- and middle-income countries. And they may not perform as well as they do against some traffic variations. In fact, on June 25, the FDA suspended the distribution of Lilly’s antibody cocktail nationwide because of the growing prevalence of two variants of concerns that do not respond to medications.
When it comes to anti-virus medications, when they disrupt the ability of the virus to recur, there are even fewer options. Remdesivir is the only drug of its kind approved for the treatment of covid-19, largely because it was one of the few candidates who tested safety in humans when the pandemic occurred, so it had a start. But how well it works is still an open question. Some studies have found that it shortens the duration of the disease, while others have little effect. The World Health Organization does not recommend its use.
Difficult therapies
Anti-virus development has been delayed for a number of reasons. Until Covid-19, companies had no economic incentive to produce these drugs. They target only 10 viruses against existing viruses, half of which treat HIV. Chronic infections require longer treatments and therefore make more money. “If there is no obvious market for a therapist, they will generally not invest in these types of therapists,” says John Bamforth, READDI, interim executive director of public-private partnerships at the University of North. Carolina Chapel Hill was created to develop antiviral antivirus.
There are also some scientific hurdles. To inhibit replication, the drug binds to certain proteins or essential viral enzymes and blocks its activity without harming the host cell. But unlike bacteria, viruses rely on the internal machinery of living cells to copy themselves, so they have little protein. And even when researchers come across a compound that works, the effectiveness is short-lived because viruses are constantly evolving.
Some researchers, including those at READDI, are working on drugs that target key proteins for virus replication. Most antivirals work on a single virus. It is hoped that these compounds will be effective against their entire families. They may also be less likely to cause resistance.
But new therapies need more time to develop. Therefore, the fastest way to get drugs off the shelves is to reuse already approved compounds. They have looked at safety, and there are fewer regulatory barriers to allowing a new use of the existing drug. DND is testing a number of existing compounds in a clinical trial called ANTI-COV. Recent research examines the anti-parasitic drug nitazoxanide in combination with an inhaled steroid. Cohen says that “the emerging consensus is that you should use antiviral force or antiviral combination with different mechanisms of action, combined with inflammatory anti-inflammatory drugs.”
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