Russia just approved the first COVID-19 prescription drug for sale in pharmacies

Russia has now released a prescription drug to help outpatients ho have mild to moderate coronavirus symptoms, Reuters reports.

What’s going on?

Russia approved its new R-Pharm’s Coronavir treatment for sale in drug stores.

• The drug could be rolled out to pharmacies within the country over the next week or so, according to Reuters.
• Coronavir and Avifavir are two prescription drugs for COVID-19 that are based off of Favipiravir, which was made in Japan to treat viruses, according to Reuters.

Don’t forget ...

Coronavir received approval after a small clinical trial with 168 patients, Reuters reporters.

Russia continues to seek vaccine success

Russia’s potential coronavirus vaccine continues to go trough multiple trials to see its effectiveness, which I wrote about for Deseret.com.

A peer-reviewed study in The Lancet found Russia’s vaccine has had no major side effects.

• The trials “did not find any serious adverse effects among participants, and confirmed that the vaccine candidates elicit an antibody response,” the study’s authors wrote.
• “Large, long-term trials including a placebo comparison, and further monitoring are needed to establish the long-term safety and effectiveness of the vaccine for preventing COVID-19 infection.”