Coronavirus death rate is still increasing as of today, and people are now worried if ever this number will still go higher over time. Due to the panic that the virus brings, people around the globe now demand a cure to this deadly disease. Interestingly, a Singaporean and Malaysian start-up company recently released their study saying that there's a possibility that people get cured with COVID-19 if they take this certain medicine tablet. What is it?
How to cure COVID-19? Use this pill that cures cats!
According to the recent report of South China Morning Post, a new drug is now being advised to possibly cure the COVID-19. A biomedical startup that includes both Malaysian and Singaporean researchers said that the secret cure to this disease might involve your favorite cat pets!
The drug known as Retromad1 is an antiviral drug used initially to treat coronaviruses and leukemia in cats. The effect of this medicine on cats are proven effective but not yet tested for human consumption. Once a cat gets either feline leukemia virus or the feline infectious peritonitis virus, the pill is known to be the perfect treatment drug for pets.
The feline infectious peritonitis virus or FeCoV is included on the same strand with the human Novel Coronavirus, which means that there's a possibility that it can also cure the COVID-19.
As explained by Dr. Ng Cher Yew, CEO of Biovalence Technologies, which developed the drug, the Retromad1 is still being studied to cure human coronaviruses. Yet, it was first invented to heal herpes.
Now, the team takes their time to test the medicine to humans for them to know if whether the drug has a negative impact or not on the human body.
"Several scientific papers had revealed that a specific mutation of Sars-CoV-2 bears similarity to how dengue, Ebola, FeCoV, and HIV infect their host through an enzyme known as the Furin protease," said startup spokesperson.
Researchers: "If we can develop our medicine, why do we have to spend money on a foreign drug?"
The researchers said that they still have lots of things to do and to approved before submitting the said cure to the authorities and letting people take the drug. For now, though, they are more confident that they can formulate a new drug that will save all the potential victims of Coronavirus-- without relying too much on foreign research and vaccines.
In fact, once the tests are successful on Retromad1, this will be the first virus cure that is taken orally by positive patients. This is compared to America's Remdesivir, which needed hospitals since it needs to be administered on human veins.
"The major shareholders of Biovalence are Singaporeans and want to put Singapore on the world map for having discovered a cure for Covid-19. Why spend money on a foreign drug when you have a Singapore-made novel drug?" said a spokesperson.
