QualPharma December 2020

CORONAVIRUS SPECIAL
No to Remdesivir for COVID
advices WHO
The World Health Organization recommended against
using Gilead’s remdesivir to treat hospitalized Covid 19
patients less than a month after US regulators granted
the drug a speedy approval stating that there is currently
no evidence that it improves survival or the .
The global health body also suspended the drug from
its so called prequalification list. The prequalification
list is an official list of medicines used as a benchmark
for procurement by developing countries. This recommendation
is a blow to Gilead’s drug. The experts
made the recommendation after a WHO sponsored
global trial, called Solidatity, found that remdesivir
didn’t reduce death
Covaxin Technology
Covaxin is an inactivated vaccine derived from a strain
of SARS-CoV-2 virus isolated at the National Institute of
Virology (NIV), Pune. The inactivated virus is formulated
with ViroVax’s adjuvant to produce the vaccine
candidate. The widely used adjuvant Aluminium hydroxide
in the development of SARS CoV-2 vaccines is
known to induce a Th2 based response (which are important
for eradication of extracellular parasites and
bacterial infection). The Th2 based response has a theoretical
risk of vaccine associated enhanced respiratory
diseases (VAERD or ADE). The company
have used
Imidazoquinoline class of adjuvants (TLR7/8 agonists),
which are known to induce Th1 based response which
further reduces the risk of ADE (Anti-Body Dependent
Enhancement).
Research says Covid patients are infectious
for first nine days from onset of infection
According to a study published in
The Lancet Microbe, one of the
world’s top medical journals, no
live virus has been isolated from
culture of the respiratory or stool
sample beyond day 9 of symptoms
despite persistently high
viral RNA loads. This means that
a person affected by COVID 19 is
infectious for nine days after developing
disease symptoms. The
finding apply to critical patient
who are admitted to the hospital.
Additionally the increase deployment
of treatments, such as dexamethasone,
remdesivir as well
as other antivirals and immunemodulators
in clinical trails are
likely to influence viral shedding
in hospitalized patients . The
result also suggests that those
with milder cases may clear the
virus faster from their body.
The Lancert Microbe study also
suggests that people infected
with SARS0CoV 2 are mostly
likely to be highly infectious from
symptom onset and the following
five days . Therefore it is important
to self isolate, immediately
after system onset.
The Lancert study looked at key
factors involved in this: viral load
(how the amount of the virus in
the body changes throughout
infection), viral RNA shedding
(the length of time someone
sheds viral genetic material
(RNA), which does not necessarily
indicate a person is infectious,
as this not necessarily indicate a
person is infectious, as this is not
necessarily able to replicate), and
isolation of the live virus (a
stronger indicator of a person’s
infectiousness, as the live virus is
isolated and tested to see it can
successfully replicate in the laboratory).
QualPharma *Dec 2020* , Vol.3 ISSUE 12