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https://www.wsj.com/articles/experimental-drug-promises-to-kill-the-flu-virus-in-a-day-1518264004
As Americans suffer through the worst influenza outbreak in almost a decade, a Japanese drugmaker says it has developed a pill that can kill the virus within a day. But even if the experimental drug lives up to the claim, it likely won't be available in the U.S. until next year at the earliest.
A late-stage trial on Japanese and American flu patients found that for the people who took the Shionogi 4507 1.41% & Co. compound, the median time taken to wipe out the virus was 24 hours. That is much quicker than any other flu drug on the market, including Roche AG's RHHBY -0.34% Tamiflu, which the trial showed took three times longer to achieve the same result. Quickly killing the virus could reduce its contagious effects, Shionogi said.
Also, Shionogi's experimental drug requires only a single dose, while patients need to take two doses of Tamiflu a day, for five days.
Both Shionogi's compound and Tamiflu take roughly the same amount of time to entirely contain flu symptoms, but Shionogi says its compound provides immediate relief faster.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @05:33PM (4 children)
No.
The drugs are antivirals, influenza spreads before people are symptomatic, and there are many animal reservoirs (mainly birds, but also pigs and horses).
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday February 26 2018, @07:31PM (3 children)
So if the treatment kills the viruses within 24 hours as claimed, why not use it profilactically?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @08:09PM (2 children)
There are already strains of influenza that are resistant to Tamiflu and it would be incredibly unlikely that this other drug would be targeting a region of the virus that is present in all strains and that wouldn't be able to mutate.
The drug itself is an inhibitor and will not "kill" the virus, so viral clearance is dependent upon the the immune system of the host. Prophylactic treatment would also have to be effective in wild birds, horses, dogs, and other non-human reservoirs.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday February 27 2018, @04:27AM (1 child)
Tamiflu is at least somewhat effective against parvovirus in dogs.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27 2018, @05:46AM
I'm a bit skeptical of that claim, but I don't know enough about the parvovirus lifecycle to exclude a role for sialic acid in it.
Influenza is an enveloped, segmented negative sense RNA virus and parvoviruses are naked, single stranded DNA viruses. I don't remember there being a neurominidase enzyme in parvoviruses, so if there's an effect it is more likely to be through an indirect mechanism.
This paper mentions that the effect is inconclusive:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20230441 [nih.gov]