Companies Develop Drugs For Covid But Vaccination Must Remain The Main Shield
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-11-20 06:49:55
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
With Pfizer and Merck coming up with antiviral medication for Covid-19, another front has been opened in the fight against the deadly virus that has troubled mankind for close to two years now. Paxlovid by Pfizer and molnupiravir by Merck are the two drugs for which the drug makers have applied for approval and England has already approved Molnupiravir for emergency use.
Experts have said the molnupiravir was initially developed in the 2000s to treat influenza and Merck has modified and tested it on select age-groups (largely on senior citizens) for efficacy against SARS-CoV-2. Tests have shown that it is effective in reducing hospitalization and serious complications by up to 50% in patients who take the course within 5 days contacting Covid. When the SARS-CoV-2 virus enters a human cell, it duplicates its RNA to replicate and spread throughout the body. Molnupiravir mimics parts of that RNA and makes mistakes in the virus' genetic code. This causes the coronavirus to mutate itself into extinction. Since viral replication happens at its fastest when Covid symptoms first appear, molnupiravir is most effective if taken within 5 days of testing positive.
On the other hand, paxlovid is a protease inhibitor and works in a different way. Protease is an enzyme in the human body which cuts strands of viral protein into small pieces to enable them to spread easily. When viruses enter a human cell, they use protease to spread quickly in the system. Paxlovid kills protease and forces the viral protein to stagnate. Unable to replicate, the virus cannot cause serious illness. Paxlovid will have to be used in combination with a common HIV drug ritonavir, which helps as a booster and allows paxlovid to remain in the body for a longer period. Clinical trial data submitted by Pfizer shows that risk of death and hospitalization is reduced by up to 89% in high-risk patients.
There are three main problems with both the drugs - one, they are very costly as of now and beyond the reach of people in many nations unless subsidized by the government; two, their efficacy in age group 18-60 has not been tested, hence leaving out the majority of people worldwide and three, all their clinical trials have been conducted on unvaccinated people and hence their efficacy in case of a partly or fully vaccinated person (which is increasingly going to be the case) contacting Covid has not been proven.
Yet, these drugs are going to stop the trial and error process that has been the standard for treating patients with Covid, largely because no drugs were available for it. Also, despite the availability of these drugs (since their use in preventing transmission has not been tested), it is important that the vaccination drive across the world is taken to its logical conclusion by fully vaccinating all eligible persons as preventing the transmission of the virus is a better way to stop it than treating infections.
