Coronavirus found in animals' lungs has been cured by an anti-parasitic drug as claimed by a new study. According to The New York Times' latest report, South Korea's Daewoong Pharmaceutical revealed that tests involving an anti-parasitic drug have proven to be effective in fighting the coronavirus in animals.
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It was reported that the anti-parasitic drug of South Korea's Daewoong Pharmaceutical called "niclosamide" eliminated the novel coronavirus lingering in the lungs of the animals used in their tests. The global impact of the novel coronavirus has pushed drugmakers around the world to quickly develop treatments for COVID-19 which has now killed more than 400,000 people around the globe since its first appearance in China late last year.
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Niclosamide, an anti-parasite drug, is a wide ranging antiviral that was already known to inhibit SARS-CoV replication.
It has also been shown to inhibit viral replication of COVID19 & render the viral pathogen noninfectious.
This is extremely promising along with HCQ zpak. pic.twitter.com/eXZLLornhJ — Michael James Coudrey (@MichaelCoudrey) April 5, 2020
The Korean pharmaceutical company said that the results of the study showed that the anti-parasitic drug has eliminated the viral disease found in the tissues of ferrets' lungs, preventing the inflammation. Daewoong Pharmaceutical said that it plans to start human clinical trials by July.
Anti-parasitic drug effective against coronavirus in animal tests; New methods to safely inactive SARS-CoV-2, revealed by scientists
Niclosamide is currently being tested by three other companies around the world as a treatment for the novel coronavirus. However, the report stated that South Korea's Daewoong Pharmaceutical is not the only company that offers the anti-parasitic drug in a form that is not given orally.
"Based on the positive outcome of the animal test, we plan to complete human trials and get approval of the COVID-19 treatment drug by the end of this year," said Daewoong Pharma's CEO Jeon Seng-ho.
The report stated that human trials of several other drugs have not shown conclusive results. Currently, there is no effective treatment yet for COVID-19. Within the three trading days after the company's announcement last week, the shares of Daewoong Pharma jumped 48.2% as of Tuesday, June 9.
Meanwhile, Fox News has reported that new methods to safely inactivate SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, were revealed by scientists. The study led by virologists at the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University was peer-reviewed and published in the Journal Viruses. It explained how to inactivate the virus to achieve a safe study of the infected cells.
"Importantly, the study defines specific methods that fully inactivate the virus, that is make it non-infectious, in ways compatible with further scientific analysis," said Professor Christopher Basler of the Institute for Biomedical Sciences.
"This allows researchers to study the proteins and genes of the virus and how the infected host responds to infection outside of high containment. Confirming that such analyses can be done safely, with no risk of infection, will increase the rate of discovery about the virus and COVID-19," he added.
