As a result of China's transition away from a "zero COVID" policy of lockdowns and toward acceptance that the virus is now endemic, the HIV drug Azvudine has been approved for treating COVID patients.
According to Reuters, citing the National Medical Products Administration, China on Monday issued the go-ahead to repurpose a drug that is generally used to treat specific HIV-1 virus infections for "normal type" COVID infections.
Genuine Biotech's drug, Azvudine, was approved to treat particular HIV infections in July 2021.
In a late-stage clinical trial, 40.4% of patients taking Azvudine showed improvement in symptoms seven days after first taking the drug, compared with 10.9% in the control group, Henan province-based Genuine Biotech said in a statement earlier this month, without providing detailed readings. -Reuters
The term "normal type" COVID refers to coronavirus infections that involve symptoms of pneumonia but have not yet progressed to a severe stage.
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