Potential treatments for novel coronavirus

Favipiravir

It is an antiviral drug developed in Japan to be used against many viruses built around ribonucleic acid－a substance essential for human life－including the novel coronavirus.

The drug is currently undergoing a controlled experiment on 80 patients in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, and has shown promising early results, Xu, the vice-minister, said.

He said experts have advised expanding the clinical trials to confirm the drug's potency. In 2017, the Japanese government listed Favipiravir as one of its strategic medicines against future flu outbreaks.

The Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen, the establishment conducting the clinical trial, said patients taking Favipiravir are improving with no obvious adverse effects.

That means it is safer than Lopinavir/ritonavir, an anti-HIV drug that is also being tested for efficacy at the institution but has shown obvious side effects, the hospital said.