Thiago CarvalhoOct 14, 2023

"Regulators have taken notice after a study sparked fresh doubts over the usefulness of a Covid drug (molnupiravir) made by US pharma group Merck, raising questions about the costly procurement of antivirals during the peak of the pandemic."

https://www.ft.com/content/c4b3f696-327f-4a3a-8594-885599ae6f8d

Covid antivirals lose spark as regulatory scrutiny increases

Doubts grow over safety and effectiveness of drugs that were marketed as coronavirus treatments

Financial Times
Show threadKarl Schwartz, Artist advocateOct 14, 2023

@cyrilpedia I'm a supporter of FDA generally ... its role is vital.

Given its known mutagenic mechanism of action and the availability of a safer and efficacious alternative (Paxlovid)... it's a mystery to me why this drug was authorized by #FDA .

Show threadMatthew MurphyOct 16, 2023
@lymphomation @cyrilpedia
The folks at This Week in Virology discussed this recently.
Their takeaway from the Nature paper discussing the molnupiravir mutations was that the drug induces a signature on the viral lineages of viruses that are able to continue, but no findings that the mutations imbue the virus with any improved fitness or increased severity of disease.
Podcast Link here: https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-1048/
MedArxiv (free pre-print) link here: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.26.23284998v4
TWiV 1048: Clinical update with Dr. Daniel Griffin

In his weekly clinical update, Dr. Griffin discusses a molnupiravir-associated mutational signature in global SARS-CoV-2 genomes, inhaled fluticasone furoate for outpatient treatment of COVID-19, optimal duration of systemic corticosteroids in COVID-19 treatment, early antibody treatment, inflammation, and risk of post-COVID conditions, autonomic dysregulation in long-term patients suffering from post-COVID-19 syndrome assessed by heart rate variability, and multiorgan MRI findings after hospitalization with COVID-19 in the UK.

This Week in Virology | A podcast about viruses - the kind that make you sick
Show threadThiago Carvalho

@mzchem_Murphy @lymphomation Thanks for the heads, I love that podcast - it was a treat to speak with Racaniello for the #EMBOPodcast

https://www.embo.org/podcasts/lessons-of-epidemics-past-and-present/

Lessons of epidemics past and present – Podcast – EMBO

Learnings from the epidemics that have emerged in the half-century in which we have had the molecular genetic and genomic tools to analyse their pathogens

EMBO
Oct 16, 2023 at 8:38amWeb