Avigan is a drug from the Fujifilm laboratory.

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KAZUHIRO NOGI / AFP

The Japanese group Fujifilm announced Wednesday that its drug Avigan, already authorized for severe forms of influenza, had allowed a “statistically significant” reduction in the healing time of patients with the new coronavirus.

Out of 156 patients included in a phase III clinical trial conducted in Japan, the median recovery time was 11.9 days for those treated with Avigan and 14.7 days for those in the placebo group, detailed the group in a communicated.

The end of convalescence in the trial was defined as the moment when the coronavirus was no longer detected via PCR tests, accompanied by a drop in symptoms (temperature levels, oxygen saturation, lung imaging).

The clinical trial focused on patients with non-severe pneumonia linked to Covid-19 disease.

Conducted since March and now completed, the clinical study did not reveal any new health risks associated with taking Avigan, Fujifilm said.

Contraindicated for pregnant women

The group will now conduct a “detailed analysis of the data” collected with this test, and plans to file “as early as October” an application for commercial authorization in Japan in the indication of the new coronavirus.

The oral drug Avigan (favipiravir) has been authorized since 2014 in Japan, but only to treat severe cases of influenza against which standard drugs have proven ineffective.

Avigan, however, is contraindicated for pregnant women, as animal studies have shown it to affect fetal development.

The Japanese government had staked a lot on this drug a few months ago.

In particular, he asked Fujifilm to increase its production and offered to provide free lots to various requesting countries.

Japan has already approved the Veklury (remdesivir) treatment of the American Gilead in May, and has also secured the delivery of hundreds of millions of doses of various vaccines developed against Covid-19 in recent months.

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  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • Japan

  • Health

  • Drug