Japan Just Approved a New Drug That Can Kill the Flu Virus In Just One Day

Arkain2K

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Fantastic news! If Tokyo isn't overran by flesh-eating zombies and/or rampaging titans in the next couple of months due to unforseen side-effects, we can go ahead and import this revolutionary drug for the next flu season!

Japan Just Approved a New Drug That Can Kill the Flu Virus In Just One Day

By Sy Mukherjee

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As the worst flu season in a decade rages on, a potentially groundbreaking new drug that can kill the flu virus in just one day has won regulatory approval—in Japan.

Japanese officials granted an accelerated approval to the treatment, Xofluza from pharmaceutical maker Shionogi, last week. It could soon prove to be a significant competitor to Swiss drug giant Roche’s Tamiflu, one of the most common antivirals used to treat the flu. But it could also take until at least 2019 for Xofluza to reach the U.S. market.

Xofluza sets itself apart from Tamiflu in several key ways, according to Shionogi. For one, it requires far fewer doses—just a single pill, in fact, compared with the five-day, two-doses-per-day regimen required by Tamiflu. That could be significant given that infections tend to linger if you don’t follow through on the entire prescribed course of a medicine.

And then there’s the timeline. Xofluza was able to kill off the flu virus within 24 hours (compared with the nearly three days it takes Tamiflu to pull off the same feat) in trials. Admittedly, that rapid flu virus destruction doesn’t mean that your flu symptoms will subside just as fast; in fact, complete symptom elimination probably takes about the same time as Tamiflu does. However, symptoms begin to dissipate faster and aren’t necessarily as pronounced with Xofluza treatment, Shionogi says.

The company touts Xofluza’s unique action mechanism as the secret behind its success. Unlike other flu antivirals, Xofluza actually stops virus replication in its tracks by inhibiting an enzyme that the flu virus needs to multiply. That may sound like a major blow to Roche and Tamiflu; but the Swiss drug maker is actually allied with Shionogi, and will have the rights to commercialize the treatment in markets outside of Japan (including the U.S.) if and when it wins regulatory approval abroad.

Flu pandemics tend to put vaccines in the spotlight—especially this year, when the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has found that the current flu vaccine is just 36% effective (and even less so against the nasty, most common strain going around, H3N2). But the development of more effective antivirals for people who have already been infected is a key element of fighting influenza, too.

http://fortune.com/2018/02/23/japan-shionogi-flu-drug-kills-virus-one-day/
 
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I was bed ridden for nearly the entirety of my Christmas holidays with influenza. The doctors didn’t mention this Tamiflu stuff at all.
 
I was bed ridden for nearly the entirety of my Christmas holidays with influenza. The doctors didn’t mention this Tamiflu stuff at all.

That's because it's probably too late by then. You have to take Tamiflu within 48 hours of the first symptoms for it to work, so if you didn't already have it in your medicine cabinet by the time you collapsed, that ship has sailed.
 
This is great news if it bears out. Someone on the radio the other day was saying flu is more likely to kill kids than meningitis.
 
That's because it's probably too late by then. You have to take Tamiflu within 48 hours of the first symptoms for it to work, so if you didn't already have it in your medicine cabinet by the time you collapsed, that ship has sailed.

I see. I had it for almost a week by the time I went to the hospital and figured out what the deal was. Thanks for the info.
 
This is great news if it bears out. Someone on the radio the other day was saying flu is more likely to kill kids than meningitis.
My third nephew Cole who is nearing 1 years old ended up getting the flu a few weeks back and had to be given Tamiflu. I have to say I was a little worried after reading how bad this flu season has been and especially that a good deal of children and babies have died from it. He is all better now
 
Well hopefully other big pharmaceutical and insure providers won’t try to undercut this...flu is big money for them...wouldn’t want to hurt there bottom line.

A big heads up to parents:

Watch how much less you get sick once your kid or kids graduates high school. Me and wifey would get sick tons when daughter was in school...now barely ever(I did get that flu around xmas,sucked so fucking bad) .
 
why wont this be useless next year when the flu has mutated
 
why wont this be useless next year when the flu has mutated
Unlike other flu antivirals, Xofluza actually stops virus replication in its tracks by inhibiting an enzyme that the flu virus needs to multiply.
I don't know anything about Biology, but at first blush that seems like something that would be common across different strains of virus.
 
I don't know anything about Biology, but at first blush that seems like something that would be common across different strains of virus.

Viruses can mutate all they want, but they always need certain enzymes to replicate themselves.

Sounds like this new drug is effectively neutering the flu virus so they can't multiply while your own immune system wipes them out. Pretty ingenius I'd say.
 
I was bed ridden for nearly the entirety of my Christmas holidays with influenza. The doctors didn’t mention this Tamiflu stuff at all.
Tamiflu is barely effective, if at all.
 
My third nephew Cole who is nearing 1 years old ended up getting the flu a few weeks back and had to be given Tamiflu. I have to say I was a little worried after reading how bad this flu season has been and especially that a good deal of children and babies have died from it. He is all better now
Great to hear. Here's hoping this news means fewer people having to endure such an ordeal.
 
Fucking flu is killing people like it's 1918 this year. I think I'm just going to hibernate next year.
 
I was bed ridden for nearly the entirety of my Christmas holidays with influenza. The doctors didn’t mention this Tamiflu stuff at all.
Tamiflu can also have some nasty side effects. My dad had hallucinations and crazy mood alteration from it.
 
Well hopefully other big pharmaceutical and insure providers won’t try to undercut this...flu is big money for them...wouldn’t want to hurt there bottom line.

A big heads up to parents:

Watch how much less you get sick once your kid or kids graduates high school. Me and wifey would get sick tons when daughter was in school...now barely ever(I did get that flu around xmas,sucked so fucking bad) .
My buddy’s two kids had flu and they wanted $650 for two courses of Tamiflu.

That’s WITH insurance (he’s a firefighter in right-to-work Virginia).

That’s some fucked up shit. There’s stories of kids dying of the flu in the papers and 5hey turn around and tell a blue collar guy $650 bones, please.

Talk about having your nuts in a vice.
 
I don't buy it. If it does work, I bet it's either harmful to your health or has shitty side-effects.
 
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