Drug may prevent COVID-19 in exposed people within households, major trial finds
An international clinical trial has identified a medication that can help prevent symptomatic COVID-19 in people exposed within households. The results could be particularly important for families where someone is at high risk of serious complications from the illness.
The drug, ensitrelvir, is already approved in Japan to treat mild to moderate COVID cases. The SCORPIO-PEP trial, however, has demonstrated that it also has the potential to protect against illness. Uninfected people who began taking the antiviral within 72 hours of symptoms first appearing in a household member were significantly less likely to contract COVID-19 than people who were given an inactive placebo.
Among the more than 2,000 trial participants in the United States and abroad, 9% of the participants taking the placebo developed confirmed cases of COVID-19. That’s compared with only 2.9% of people taking ensitrelvir – a 67% reduction in risk of COVID-19 illness.
“In addition to vaccination, post-exposure prophylaxis with timely use of an oral antiviral would be a valuable way to help prevent COVID-19 illness in people who have been exposed, especially people at high risk for severe disease,” said University of Virginia School of Medicine emeritus professor Frederick G. Hayden, MD, who helped design the trial and presented the trial results today at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in San Francisco.
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