Arizona Physicians are Participating in Trial of New COVID-19 Treatment for Unvaccinated People

 

Physicians in Mesa and Tucson are participating in a clinical trial of a new drug called molnupriavir. Where do they get these names?!?  

The drug, produced by Merck, is a wide spectrum antiviral. It is proposed to work by inhibiting viral replication by a mechanism known as lethal mutagenesis.  

Specifically, the drug messes with the virus's ability to replicate accurately. This causes the virus to build up genetic mistakes and leads to a process called an "error catastrophe" that prevents it from replicating and spreading. 

I got that information from an article in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology.  If you want to know how, exactly, the virus does this, the article goes into great detail about it. Be sure to dust off your old molecular biology and organic chemistry textbooks first.

Some of the criteria for participating in the clinical trial are:

  • You live in a household where someone else has a case confirmed by testing or by having at least one symptom.
  • You do not have a confirmed COVID-19 case yourself.
  • You are not be vaccinated.
  • If you're female you can't be pregnant or breastfeeding.
  • If you are a male you must be willing to abstain from heterosexual intercourse for a period of time.
I wonder what that last one is about!  See the link for the full list of inclusion and exclusion criteria.  

The physician supervising the Arizona trials sums up eligibility this way: "If you have been exposed to COVID-19 within the last five days, and someone that you're living with has tested positive within the last three days, you're able to come in." She adds that you must be unvaccinated. 

It's a clinical trial, so you can't be assured of getting the drug. If you join you will be randomly assigned to receive the treatment or a placebo.

Arizona locations participating are both part of The Institute for Liver Health DBA Arizona Clinical Trials.  You can contact the study coordinator for Mesa at 480-360-4000 and for Tucson at 520-485-4000.


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