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The two new drugs against corona, approved by the World Health Organization, can make a useful contribution to the fight against the corona virus. The drugs can help corona patients with a different disease course. That is what virologist Johan Neyts (KU Leuven) says. On Friday, the WHO approved the drugs baricitinib and sotrovimab to treat corona patients.
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jvhSource: BELGIAN
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“In the future we will go to a large arsenal of corona medicines and corona inhibitors,” says Neyts. “We will also need them in the coming years.”
One drug, baricitinib, is an existing drug that has so far been used to treat rheumatism patients. It dampens the ignition mechanism in a patient. The drug should be administered when the person is already hospitalized with severe COVID-19. At that point, the viral phase is already over and the patient is sick because his or her immune system goes ‘into overdrive’. That mechanism is tempered by baricitinib. The drug is recommended in combination with cortisone treatment.
Sotrovimab, the second drug approved Friday, is a monoclonal antibody. The antibodies prevent the virus from entering our cells by binding to the spike protein of the coronavirus.
The WHO recommends that sotrovimab be used within five days of being infected, if a person is not yet seriously ill. The drug reduces the risk of severe symptoms by 87 percent. Sotrovimab is also known to protect against the omikron variant, while this is not always the case with other monclonal antibodies. Other known virus inhibitors, which work in a different way than monoclonal antibodies, also protect against the omikron variant. These include, for example, the drugs remdesivir and molnupiravir.
“So the two agents are useful and useful for a different kind of corona patients,” Neyts clarifies. “If you have only just become infected, sotrovimab is more useful. If you are already going through a more severe form of the disease, you will be helped more with baricitinib in combination with cortisone treatment.”
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