COVID-19 antiviral treatment should be taken for longer

Covid-19 seen under the microscope. SARS-CoV-2, 3d rendering The currently recommended five-day course of molnupiravir, an antiviral treatment, may not be long enough to treat COVID-19, according to a new paper involving UCL researchers. The study, published in Nature Communications , was conducted as part of PANORAMIC, an ongoing clinical trial evaluating potential treatments for COVID-19. In this virology sub-study, the researchers analysed viral samples provided by 577 trial participants from across the UK who were randomly assigned to receive either a five-day course of molnupiravir or usual care without antiviral treatments. The researchers found that molunpiravir initially lowered patients' viral load more quickly than usual care, with 14% of molnupiravir patients having cleared the virus by day five, compared to only 2% of the usual care group. However, post-treatment the rate of viral decline in molnupiravir-treated participants significantly slowed. Nine days after treatments, only 48% of molnupiravir-treated patients had cleared the virus, compared to 56% of the patients receiving usual care.