On December 14, China Pharmaceuticals announced that the company will be responsible for the import and distribution of Pfizer's new coronavirus treatment drug Nematrevir Tablets/Ritonavir Tablets (Paxlovid) in the Chinese mainland market. How effective is Paxlovid? Regarding its applicable groups, side effects and "recovery" issues, Yale University medical experts have recently done a special review and answer. (How effective is the 2,980 yuan/box of " COVID-19 miracle drug"? This is what Yale medical experts say)
Red Star News reporter learned that in April this year, He Dayi, the internationally renowned father of AIDS "cocktail therapy" and Columbia University professor, took Paxlovid after being infected with the new crown, and experienced the "rebound effect" of first turning negative and then "reverting to positive". This personal experience gave the Chinese virologist a strong research interest. On September 8th and 15th, He Dayi's team reported the phenomenon and analysis of the rebound of virus after antiviral drug treatment. In early November, his research team published a paper analyzing the potential drug resistance of Paxlovid in "natural".
To learn more about the Paxlovid drug, the Red Star News reporter contacted the He Dayi laboratory team.
Viral epidemiologist He Dayi once invented the AIDS "cocktail therapy"
Those who "recover positive" after taking Pfizer "miraculous drug":
may still infect others, or may need to take a long course of medication
After the outbreak, Dr. He Dayi tried to avoid infection for more than two years. However, in April 2022, the HIV research pioneer was still infected with the new coronavirus while attending the two-day new coronavirus conference in Paris. Shortly after returning home, He Dayi began to cough, have a sore throat, headache, and runny nose. He immediately performed an antigen test and a PCR test for , and the test results were positive. He took the initiative to isolate himself. About 12 hours after symptoms began, he swallowed his first dose of Pfizer's antiviral drug Paxlovid. By the 4th day, his symptoms were relieved, and the new coronavirus test was negative.
However, after six consecutive "negative" days, his test result was positive again. He recalled: "I tested myself immediately and I was very surprised that it was positive again."
He Dayi's team told Red Star News reporters that the "rebound effect" related to Paxlovid is a phenomenon that is now increasingly observed: infected people take a complete 5-day course of Paxlovid, become asymptomatic and test negative, but after stopping treatment, the virus and symptoms return. "This is of particular concern," the team said, "because people who rebound may infect others."
He Dayi's team believes that the academic community needs to conduct more research to determine the exact mechanism by which this occurs. The team said: "Our preliminary studies suggest that a longer course of treatment may be a solution." This means that continuing to take Paxlovid for a longer time may be able to avoid "relapse" when the drug is stopped after a course of treatment. "In the United States, FDA (the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) has asked Pfizer to conduct a clinical trial testing a second course of Paxlovid in people who have rebounded, but results are not expected until late next year."
Paxlovid
It is becoming increasingly difficult to prevent and control infection
It is very important to continue to develop treatment options
It is reported that the BQ and XBB series subvariants of Omicron are currently spreading rapidly around the world and have gradually become the mainstream strains in some areas such as the United States.
Academician Zhong Nanshan also mentioned on December 9 that there are currently two trends in the development of mutant strains: one is XBB and the other is BQ.1.1. Among them, XBB has become mainstream in Singapore, with a transmission coefficient as high as 20. "Currently, according to official information from Singapore, XBB is more transmissible and less pathogenic, with a mortality rate of only 62% of ordinary seasonal influenza." As for BQ.1.1, it has appeared in some places in the United States.
On December 13, local time, He Dayi's team published a study in "Cell" saying that this may be due to individual spike mutations of new variants, which trigger an increase in the virus's "antibody evasion characteristics."This means that the BQ and XBB series are stronger at evading antibodies than previous strains. The
Omicron subvariant mutates to "disease resistance evasion", making humans more susceptible to infection, but it is still very important to obtain antibodies through vaccination, because antibodies can prevent most patients from becoming severe patients. Natural infection carries more risks than vaccination. "This does not mean that vaccination is not important, because the vaccine is still effective in preventing severe disease," He Dayi's team told the Red Star News reporter. "Of course, as preventing infection becomes more and more difficult, it is important to continue to develop treatment options."
So, in the face of the BQ and XBB series strains, what will be the effect of Paxlovid? In response to this, He Dayi's team responded to Red Star News: "Since there are no new additional mutations in the 3CL protease (the target of Paxlovid) of these variants, Paxlovid is expected to remain active, although this needs to be confirmed clinically." He Dayi's team showed a Red Star News reporter
In addition, cutting-edge research shows that some drugs sold overseas - bebtelovimab and Evusheld - have lost their effectiveness. He Dayi's team confirmed that these two drugs are no longer active against the new variants of the BQ and XBB series.
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column editor: Gu Wanquan text editor: Fang Ying title picture source: Xinhua News Agency photo editor: Shao Jing
source: author: Red Star News Wang Yalin Deng Shuyi
