Interferon Inducers In The Fight Against COVID-19

For more than a year, the global community has faced a battle with the pandemic of COVID-19. Governments have fought to create vaccines and treatments at an accelerated speed in order to protect their nations and people from the clutches of this terrible virus. 

Vaccines and treatments that are effective have been created; however managing to secure enough doses of such medication and being able to bring them to the people who need it is a very slow process, even at the fastest speed possible.

One country that has made breakthroughs in the race to curb the impact of COVID-19 is Russia. Many media outlets have reported on Sputnik V medicine, but the Russian health authorities also have an antiviral medication called Kagocel.

What is Kagocel?
Kagocel is a well-known and popular antiviral medicine in Russia that has been in widespread use for a number of years. It belongs to a classification of medicines known as interferon inducers. 

Antiviral interferon inducer medications like this prevent the spread of viruses within the body once infected. Kagocel is particularly effective in treating standard ARVI infections (these are commonly referred to as a ‘cold’) and in the treatment of influenza.

There are not many pharmaceutical medicines available in the world today that are interferon inducers. However, the 48th Central Research Institute of the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense has conducted studies into the use of one of the most popular interferon inducer  to treat and prevent the spread of COVID-19.

How do interferon inducers perform in the fight against COVID-19?
The Russian Federation Ministry of Defense conducted these studies with in vitro experiments. Results of the studies clearly showed that, provided that interferon inducer was introduced to the COVID-19 virus at a specific time, the virus was unable to grow and spread within the laboratory conditions.

The biotechnology and pharmaceutical company Nearmedic, based in Moscow, state that the results from these tests show that this medicine is indeed a very effective medication with relation to COVID-19, and it “...can be considered as one of (the) promising candidates for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19.”

What do interferon inducers mean for the fight against COVID-19?
Interferon inducer has been highly and widely recommended by the Russian Ministry of Health for many years. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently begun to see the promise that medicines like this company provide. The Global Influenza Strategy 2019-2030 and also BRaVe, the ARVI Initiative, have been tasked with creating interferon inducers like Kagocel, and the world is beginning to recognize this potential.

Alexander Ginzburg, who is Director of the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology based in Russia, says, “It would be a significant missed opportunity to overlook interferon inducers in the fight against COVID-19."

Fighting the COVID-19 pandemic is uppermost in the thoughts of all nations. Interferon inducer medications may have a very important part to play in tackling and reducing the devastation and widespread infection of COVID-19. This medicine brings hope, and further clinical studies will be undertaken to see how effective it can be.

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