Flu patients who took part in the trial are said to have had the virus wiped out from their bodies in about 24 hours; as comparison the drug Tamiflu produced by the Roche groups was tested and found to take about three times as long as the Shionogi compound.
Both compounds take around the same time to entirely contain symptoms, but the Shionogi compound provided immediately relief more quickly and only required one dose to be effective as compared to Tamiflu needing to be taken twice a day for 5 days.
The company built upon its anti-HIV medication to produce this compound which appears to be more effective and different than other medications. The flu virus works by hijacking human cells and forcing them to produce viral material rather than proteins to spread the virus. Current treatments stop the virus from exiting infected cells to spread, this method prevents viral materials from being produced at all.
Most research into fighting influenza concentrate on improving existing vaccines rather than developing new treatments. This compound could be a big step in the battle against the flu as killing the virus of as quickly as possible would reduce risk of spreading infection.
Japan’s regulatory authority for drugs has fast tracked approval for this compound, the company should have permission to move forward soon; application for US FDA approval has been submitted in the summer of 2018 but response isn’t expected until some time in 2019.
