Covid Antiviral Drugs May Be With Us By The Autumn

We currently have some successful antiviral drugs. Acyclovir is potent against herpes, particularly genital herpes, taken orally and used locally as a cream.

So why, you may ask, do we not have an antiviral drug to treat Covid? Well, we could in fact have one by the autumn.

Finding one hasn’t been easy, says David Smith, clinical research fellow in infection and community, and Dipender Gill, clinical lecturer in clinical pharmacology at St George’s University of London.

In its search for orally acting drugs that curb multiplication and help eliminate Covid from the body, the Government has launched a Covid-19 antivirals taskforce with the aim of finding drugs for home treatment by autumn this year. These drugs have the potential to reduce viral transmission, illness and mortality.