Vietnam successfully prepares drugs to treat COVID-19
TPO – The COVID-19 treatment drug VIPDERVIR has a medicinal origin, which inhibits the development of the SARS-CoV-2 virus when tested on animals. The Ethics Council – Ministry of Health has unanimously approved the clinical research protocol on COVID-19 patients being treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases.
The COVID-19 treatment drug VIPDERVIR was made by a research team led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Quang Huan of the Institute of Biotechnology under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic. 19 is going very complicatedly.
According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Quang Huan, this study inherits the Academy’s studies and medical documents, with modern bioinformatics technology (AutoDock software), the research team has screened the active ingredients. and determined to create combinations in herbs with strong binding affinity for molecular targets involved in the invasion and proliferation of SARS-CoV-2 virus in order to prepare drugs from medicinal herbs.
VIPDERVIR drugs are derived entirely from medicinal herbs in Vietnam. “We have to choose drugs with abundant medicinal origin in Vietnam. If using medicinal herbs with strong activity but scarce, it is difficult to carry out mass production,” Assoc. Huan shared.
The drug is evaluated to be able to prevent the virus from sticking to the host cell, making it impossible to penetrate the virus into the host cell. The drug also has the ability to inhibit the ability of the virus to multiply in the cell, meaning that the virus particles that have entered the host cell will also lose the ability to multiply. The drug also has the ability to activate immune cells so that they recognize, block and eliminate viral particles.
Assoc. Huan said, through testing acute toxicity, semi-chronic toxicity at the Central Institute of Drug Testing and Department of Pharmacology at Hanoi Medical University, evaluating the ability to inhibit H5N1 virus at the Institute of Biotechnology, inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 virus at the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology and enhancing immunity at the Department of Pharmacology, Hanoi Medical University, the authors tested it on rabbits.
Preclinical results have proven that the drug VIPDERVIR is safe and effective in inhibiting the development of H5N1 virus and SARS-CoV-2 virus, the drug has an immune-enhancing effect when tested on animals.
Currently, drugs for the treatment of COVID-19 have been developed by the research team to create tablets on the basis of Vietnamese herbs (meeting the Pharmacopoeia standards), ensuring timely production for business purposes. current COVID-19 prevention.
On August 7, 2021, the Ethics Council – Ministry of Health unanimously approved the clinical research protocol for drugs from Vietnamese medicinal herbs on COVID-19 patients being treated at the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases.
According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chu Hoang Ha, Vice President of Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, this is the first drug to treat COVID-19 from Vietnamese medicinal herbs that have been licensed for clinical trials in Vietnam. VIPDERVIR needs further research and clinical trials to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of COVID-19 treatment before mass use. “We are very interested in how to shorten the clinical trial time so that the drug can be put into use soon in the special conditions of the current pandemic,” Ha said.
Along with the treatment drug VIPDERVIR, previously, the Institute of Chemistry – Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology has successfully researched a new method of synthesizing Favipiravir in the laboratory.
Favipiravir is a drug with a similar mechanism of action to Remdesivir but is administered orally and was first used against Sar-Cov-2 in Wuhan. The drug is also approved for use in Italy, Japan, Russia, and several other countries.
(Source: https://tienphong.vn/viet-nam-dieu-che-thanh-cong-thuoc-dieu-tri-covid-19-post1364380.tpo)
