What is Molnupiravir?
Molnupiravir drug is an orally effective prodrug of the manufactured nucleoside evolved N4-hydroxycytidine. It prompts errors in the viral RNA grouping, stopping the viral replication, lessening the contamination, and restricting infection transmission during the viral RNA replication. Physicians have affirmed that Molnupiravir capsules can smother the infection within 24 hours of having it, and this could be a distinct advantage during this pandemic. It is an oral medicine, which can be taken according to the doctor’s treatment plan. While COVID-19 is causing worldwide destruction, numerous specialists have directed preliminaries and studies to track down a reasonable medication to treat COVID-19, and one of its parts is Molnupiravir capsule which showed great viability.
Initially, this capsule was developed for the treatment of influenza, clinical data suggests that Molnupiravir drug has broad anti-influenza activity, which includes highly potent inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 replication. The two active compounds of this drug are EIDD-2801 and EIDD-1931. When this drug is administered through the mouth, it absorbs and then converts to its active form, thus making the Molnupiravir treatment initiated as early as possible to restrain the patient’s progress into further developing to severe disease and also significantly reduces the infectious phase which the patient may be undergoing.
Many tests and studies have been conducted to examine the efficiency of this drug. Initial trials have been conducted with the weasel/ferrets family of animals which gave promising results. Pre-clinical data revealed that the patients who were treated with Molnupiravir achieved good response within 5 days of therapy which indicated that the duration of treatment with Molnupiravir is smaller, with the additional facility of being an oral therapy. Researchers believe that this drug will be able to treat other viruses as well.
The drug was deemed to be safe and was well tolerated up to 800 mg twice a day for five days in healthy trial subjects during phase-1 clinical trials attended in the United Kingdom. In the phase-2 clinical trials, all the patients who took Molnupiravir capsule were found to have a negative SARS-CoV-2 culture after the five-day treatment duration. Following the nod from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), Phase-III clinical trials have been started to experience the effectiveness of this drug with patients suffering from mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms.