... a Japanese health ministry source suggested the drug was not as effective in people with more severe symptoms. “We’ve given
Avigan to 70 to 80 people, but it doesn’t seem to work that well when the virus has already multiplied,” the source told the Mainichi Shimbun.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/18/japa...
This supposed beacon of hope is an antiviral medicine known as
Avigan, and its most vocal proponent is Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/business/japan-...
What
Avigan, whose generic name is favipiravir, does have is a peculiar regulatory history and one dangerous potential side effect — birth defects. Mr. Abe himself noted in a news conference on Monday that the side effect was “the same as thalidomide,” which caused deformities in thousands of babies in the 1950s and ’60s.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/business/japan-...