Developing the next best antiviral drugs ..

Remdesivir is the only anti-viral drug with US FDA approval we know that has been developed and was partially successful in our war against the Covid 19 virus from May 2020. It is because Remedesivir was developed specifically for other viruses but not for Covid 19 virus. But we have tried at least 10 more more drugs in vaccine form ever since starting Dec 2020, the efficacy of which is still debatable..

After Edward Jenner in 1796 in UK developed and administered the first successful vaccine against smallpox, humanity has benefited a lot from vaccines for 224 years .

As of Jan 23 2021, two drugs  are authorized and recommended to prevent COVID-19 in US. ​​​​Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna. Phase 3 clinical trials are happening for AstraZeneca, Janssen and Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine​s.

In India, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, known as Covishield, or the domestic product, Covaxin, developed by the pharmaceutical company Bharat Biotech are available..

In UAE, Chinese Sinopharm, US' Pfizer and Russian Sputnik are available. EU has Comirnaty developed by BioNTech and Pfizer ..

All these vaccines are of 2 doses to be administered 2 - 3 weeks apart to improve efficacy .. Only 1 dose will give 50% efficacy while 2 doses can give almost 95% efficacy.

Vaccine efficacy is the percentage reduction of disease in a vaccinated group of people compared to an unvaccinated group, using the most favorable conditions. This info on Covid 19 vaccine administration across the world useful as of 23 Jan 2021.

Drug research has seen drugs coming out fast, in a matter of 10 months, but we do not yet know how effective they are going to be in the long run. How can we be better prepared for drugs next time a similar pandemic strikes humanity ?

This HBR article (click here) tells us that to really protect humanity, we need to develop drugs soon enough. We have had bad experiences starting from the Spanish flu in 1920s to the lastest Ebola and Sars Cov1.

For this we need to 

1. identify the primary medical threats facing humanity

2. focus on developing small molecule anti-viral drugs and 

3. make societal commitment to this type of research

which will make humanity better prepared for the next great viral pandemic that may hit humanity. 

George.