Triple-drug combo shows promise in Covid-19 treatment

Although any solid scientific cure for Covid-19 is yet to be developed, findings from a new study have shown that a combination of three antiviral drugs holds promise for the treatment of this lethal disease.

The research, published in The Lancet, reveals that the combination of drugs interferon beta-1b, lopinavir–ritonavir and ribavirin worked better than the lopinavir–ritonavir combination alone on patients who have "mild to moderate" symptoms of coronavirus infection.

"This study showed that early treatment with the triple combination of antiviral therapy with interferon beta-1b, lopinavir–ritonavir, and ribavirin is safe and highly effective in shortening the duration of virus shedding, decreasing cytokine responses, alleviating symptoms, and facilitating the discharge of patients with mild to moderate Covid-19," researchers wrote. "Furthermore, the triple antiviral therapy rapidly rendered viral load negative in all specimens, thereby reducing infectiousness of the patient."

These early but important findings do not include severe cases of Covid-19, and the authors stress the need for larger phase-3 trials to examine the effectiveness of this triple combination in critically ill patients.

The researchers found that the group that was given the three-drug combination tested negative for the virus after seven days, while the control group tested negative after 12 days.

"The triple combination also alleviated symptoms completely within four days — a significantly shorter time than the control," the researchers added.

The study, which was a Phase-2 trial, was conducted by researchers in Hong Kong who analyzed patients in the city-state. They recruited 127 patients between Feb. 10 and March 2020. Of the 127 patients, 86 were given the three-drug combination, while the remaining 41 were assigned as a control group.

Interferon 1-b has generally been used to treat multiple sclerosis in the past, while lopinavir-ritonavir and ribavirin have been used to treat HIV and hepatitis C, respectively.

A number of medicines are currently being tested to see if they can treat Covid-19, including Gilead's remdesivir, which was recently granted emergency use approval by the Food and Drug Administration of the US. The production of this drug has already begun in Bangladesh.

(Source: Health Europa/Fox News)

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