The Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) and the Quirino Memorial Medical Center (QMMC) are encouraging coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients to participate in the clinical trial to test the effectiveness of antiviral drug Molnupiravir in the treatment of the said respiratory illness.
The hospitals need a total of 35 patients. The LCP has already recruited 15 patients and it needs 10 more participants, while the QMMC needs 10 participants.
“If you know anyone or potential patients who you think might benefit from this medication or in this clinical trial you can refer them to us at QMMC or inform me regarding the patient,” said Dr. Joel Santiaguel, clinical trial investigator at QMMC, in an online forum on Tuesday, Aug. 17.
Other countries are also studying the effectiveness of molnupiravir, said Dr. Virginia Delos Reyes, clinical trial investigator at LCP.
“Trials (are) being conducted globally. More than 100 trial sites: in US, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, and Japan. In Southeast Asia, it is only the Philippines that is involved. Currently, there are two trial sites in the Philippines (LCP and QMMC),” said Delos Reyes.
How Molnupiravir works
Molnupiravir is an oral pill that is developed by global pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp & Dohme Corporation (MSD) in collaboration with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. It is currently under Phase 3 clinical trial.
“It is an investigational oral antiviral, it is not a repurposed drug and its mechanism of action is to insert itself into the SARS-CoV-2 virus,” said Dr. Mary Ann Galang-Escalona, Country Medical Lead of MSD in the Philippines.
“Once the virus enters your body, if you are given Molnupiravir early in the course of the disease, for example five days or less from the onset of symptoms, molnupiravir may be able to cause a viral error catastrophe,” she added.
Escalona explained that viral error catastrophe is a “phenomenon wherein Molnupiravir inserts itself into the body of the virus.”
“What happens after that---copies that the virus will make will all be defective. So it will not be able to cause infection further in the body or it may not lead to increased severity of the disease for that person,” she said.
Criteria to participate
Those who are interested to participate in the said clinical trial must be:
*At least 18 years old
*Have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past five days
*Have not received a COVID-19 vaccine
*Not hospitalized
*Have at least one comorbidity
*Have at least one of the following mild to moderate symptoms: cough, sore throat, nasal congestion, runny nose, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, muscle or body aches, fatigue, fever of at least 38 degrees Celsius, chills, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of smell, loss of taste
All enrollees will undergo complete screening and laboratory testing before they officially join the clinical trial group.
“For this clinical trial, we will be enrolling patients who have mild to moderate disease. It is important that the first thing they would do is to sign a consent na pumapayag sila to be included and enrolled in the clinical trial,” said Santiaguel.
“In terms of duration of participation in the clinical trial, it would more or less be up to seven months,” he added.
Patients who are willing to volunteer as participants in the clinical trial may contact the clinical trial investigators in LCP, Dr. Virginia Delos Reyes at 0917-899-9610, and in QMMC, Dr. Joel Santiaguel at 0917-841-3314.