Antiviral drugs in pill form are currently in development in clinical trials, and scientists say they could be on the market within months.
At least three antiviral drugs for COVID-19 are in clinical trials, with results from those clinical trials to be expected by late fall or early winter, according to Carl Dieffenbach, director of the Division of AIDS at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“I think that we will have answers as to what these pills are capable of within the next several months,” Dieffenbach told Kaiser Health News.
Dieffenbach said the frontrunner drug, called molnupiravir, is being developed by Merck & Co. and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. The other two drugs are from Pfizer, and are known for now as PF-07321332, and AT-527.
These two drugs are being developed by Roche and Atea Pharmaceuticals, respectively.
According to Kaiser Health News, these drugs work by blocking “the virus’s ability to replicate in human cells.”
But they are still months away from being approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). So far, the only antiviral treatment for COVID-19 approved by the FDA is remdesivir.
Unlike the three drugs currently being studied, remdesivir can only be given intravenously to patients sick enough to be hospitalized with the coronavirus, according to the FDA.
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