On Monday an international team of researchers published the first verified scientific data on the effectiveness of a new treatment that could become the most potent antiviral drug against the coronavirus: plitidepsin. Scientists led by the Spanish virologist Adolfo García-Sastre from Mount Sinai hospital in New York, explain that this drug is 100 times more potent than remdesivir, the first antiviral drug approved to treat Covid-19, which until now has not shown that it is entirely effective, according to the authors of the study.
Plitidepsin is a synthetic drug based on a substance produced in a species of ascidians found in the Mediterranean Sea: invertebrate and hermaphrodite animals that live attached to rocks and docks, such as sea squirts. The Madrid-based company PharmaMar developed the pharmaceutical, which is sold under the name Aplidina, to treat the blood cancer multiple myeloma. The drug, however, has only been approved in Australia.
When the coronavirus pandemic broke out, PharmaMar began a clinical trial to test whether plitidepsin could be used against Covid-19. According to the company, the drug reduces the viral charge in hospitalized patients, but it has still not published its scientific data which must be verified.
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