A new coronavirus drug is newly registered in Russia that said to ease the pain of virus patients experiencing inflammation complications. Though it is not a vaccine, this drug may treat a sick person to feel less pain during COVID-19 treatment. Until a vaccine comes into the world, this might be helpful for most infected people.
Russia has a new formulated COVID-19 drug that eases the pain of patients
As reported via CGTN, a newly-registered COVID-19 drug is set to be made available in the market. The drug, Levilimab, is made by Russian scientists and produced in the BIOCAD biotechnology company in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Just to clarify, this drug is not a vaccine to totally cure patients with Coronavirus. However, it does help to curb the so-called "cytokine storm," a common complication from COVID-19 when the sick person's immune system overreacts to the virus, and the excessive inflammation leads to a deadly result.
The developers said that the drug may help to ease the pain that COVID-19 patients had been experiencing in the hospitals, hopefully, with just enough time for other scientists and experts to find the best cure against the Novel Coronavirus, before its too late.
Ekaterina Trifonova, head of the infectious ward at the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow, said that the drug helped many of their patients to increase the speed of recovery compared to their foreign counterparts.
With the first two-week trial of Levilimab, 10 people were already discharged from their hospital out of the 45 COVID-19 patients who got tested with the drug. Other patients also felt a satisfactory level of pain when they were injected with the medicine.
"The highlight of Levilimab is that it can be administered not only to patients already in a serious condition but used as a prophylactic to prevent the "cytokine storm" from occurring and allowing the patient to avoid intensive care and lung ventilation," said Dmitry Morozov, general director of Biocad, the biopharmaceutical company behind the drug.
Russia also has its first antiviral drug called Avifavir
Levilimab isn't the only COVID-19 drug that Russia can be proud of. A week earlier, the country also approved its first antiviral drug called Avifavir.
This drug helps to seek "high efficacy in treating patients with coronavirus during clinical trials." As reported, Avifavir can treat COVID-19 patients within four days of treatment, compared to the nine-day standard operation in most countries.
The first batch of the antiviral drug will be delivered to hospitals in Russia and will be given quickly to patients, with no charges. But, it must be used with a doctor's supervision.