Antiviral agents

Antivirals for COVID-19: five questions that must be answered

The UK government has secured 730,000 doses of two new oral antivirals that it hopes will help to stop COVID-19 in its tracks and keep vulnerable people out of hospital this winter.…

‘Magic blankets’: a new classification of drugs that could help tackle future pandemics

In new pandemics, we won't have time to find 'magic bullets' — we need to build an armoury of broad-spectrum therapeutics that combat a range of pathogens.…

Antivirals have little effect on mortality in patients hospitalised with COVID-19, suggest WHO trial interim results

Four repurposed antiviral treatments for COVID-19 have little or no effect on mortality in patients who are hospitalised, interim results from the World Health Organization’s Solidarity trial have suggested.…

EMA to investigate possible link between remdesivir and acute kidney injury

The European Medicines Agency’s safety committee is to review reports of acute kidney injury in some patients being given remdesivir for COVID-19.…

Government tightens availability of remdesivir treatment for COVID-19 patients as supplies shrink

Patients with COVID-19 across the UK will now have to meet additional criteria before being prescribed remdesivir as supplies of the drug become limited.…

Almost all patients who used pharmacy sore throat test and treat service would choose service again

Nearly 100% of patients who accessed a community pharmacy sore throat test and treat service said they would return to their pharmacy for subsequent sore throat symptoms, a survey has found.…

Lopinavir/ritonavir ‘not effective’ for patients hospitalised with COVID-19, third set of RECOVERY trial results show

An antiviral treatment commonly used to treat HIV has been found to have no beneficial effect in patients hospitalised with COVID-19, according to the third set of results to come out of the ‘Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy’ trial. …

No improvement in mortality rates for COVID-19 patients treated with remdesivir

There are “no statistically significant differences” for mortality and serious adverse events in COVID-19 patients treated with remdesivir, a rapid evidence review carried out by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has concluded.…

No significant efficacy difference between courses of remdesivir in patients with severe COVID-19

There is no significant difference in efficacy between five-day and ten-day courses of the antiviral remdesivir for patients with severe COVID-19 not requiring ventilation, research published in The New England Journal of  Medicine has shown.…

First COVID-19 treatment to be made available for use in UK outside a clinical trial

Remdesivir will become the first COVID-19 treatment in the UK to be made available for use outside a clinical trial.…