New Delhi: A study has found that Covid-19 patients who were treated with an experimental hepatitis drug were able to recover from the virus quicker.
The study was done by a team of researchers from the Toronto Centre for Liver Disease and was published on 5 February in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine. The researchers have found that patients who received one jab of the experimental hepatitis drug called peginterferon-lambda were four times more likely to have an undetectable viral load within just seven days.
Covid-19 patients were given peginterferon-lambda, which is typically used in-vitro against hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus. The study aimed to investigate the “safety and efficacy” of this drug in treating outpatients with mild or moderate Covid-19.
This was a placebo-controlled trial, in which 60 Covid-19 patients were randomly assigned to either an injection of pegintereferon-lambda or a placebo. These patients were within seven days of symptoms or had a positive Covid-19 test.
‘Treatment has large therapeutic potential’
One week after the injection was administered, the researchers found that 80 per cent of participants who received the drug had undetectable viral loads. This was in comparison to 63 per cent in the placebo group.
Covid-19 patients who were given the drug were also four times more likely to have an undetectable viral load by the seventh day, found the study.
“Peginterferon lambda accelerated viral decline in outpatients with Covid-19, increasing the proportion of patients with viral clearance by day 7, particularly in those with high baseline viral load,” the study concluded.
The study also noted that the drug has the potential of preventing clinical deterioration and reducing the duration of viral shedding.
Dr Jordan Feld, who led the study and is a liver specialist at the Toronto Centre for Liver Disease, said, “This treatment has large therapeutic potential, especially at this moment as we see aggressive variants of the virus spreading around the globe which are less sensitive to both vaccines and treatment with antibodies.”
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