Existing flu medicine may be able to slow down corona – Wel.nl

There may be a flu medicine that can help against the corona virus. Hamsters given a high dose of favipiravir were found to be much less ill. The much more famous drug hydroxychloroquine had no effect. This is reported by KU Leuven, which published the study in the professional journal PNAS.

Favipiravir is a drug that is mainly used against the flu virus in Japan. The researchers administered the drug to infected hamsters. In the animals given a high dose, almost no active virus was found after four days. A low dose appeared to have no effect.

“It’s the high dose that makes the difference,” says researcher Leen Delang. “That’s important to know, because international clinical studies are being set up to test favipiravir in humans.”

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