• This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • Sun - Fri 8:00 - 20:30
VV116

The drug, called VV116, is a derivative of Gilead Sciences's COVID drug Remdesivir and was approved for use in moderate-to-severe cases in Uzbekistan last year.

An antiviral oral drug being co-developed by Shanghai Junshi Biosciences’ subsidiary and other Chinese institutes showed early promise in speeding the clearing of virus in COVID-19 patients, according to a small clinical trial.

The drug, called VV116, is a derivative of Gilead Sciences’s COVID drug Remdesivir and was approved for use in moderate-to-severe cases in Uzbekistan last year.

The viral shedding period, defined by its trial researchers as the duration between the first positive COVID test result and the first negative one, was 8.56 days for participants who took the experimental treatment within five days from the first positive test result.

That was shorter than 11.13 days seen in the control group, peer-reviewed data showed.

The trial involved 136 mild or moderate adult COVID infections recruited in March in China. Participants were given either the five-day course oral drug along with standard treatment or standard treatment only, researchers said in a paper published in the journal Emerging Microbes and Infections.

Overall, there was no significant difference between the viral shedding period for those who took VV116 more than five days after first positive result and the control group.

Limitations of the study include the small trial size and a higher portion of participants in the control group reporting symptoms, which could result in potential bias that researchers had to adjust with statistic model, the paper said.

The drug is undergoing a phase-III trial to evaluate its efficacy in mild-to-moderate patients in comparison with Pfizer’s oral pill Paxlovid, and a separate phase-III trial in moderate-to-severe cases.

China has approved Paxlovid as well as Brii Biosciences’s 2137.HK antibody-based injection for mild and moderate COVID patients with high risk of progressing to severe conditions.

Company Name: Reuters
About Company: Reuters is an international news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was established in London in 1851 by the German-born Paul Reuter;.