Favipiravir in Therapy of Viral Infections

Ryta Łagocka; Violetta Dziedziejko; Patrycja Kłos; Andrzej Pawlik

doi:10.3390/jcm10020273

Favipiravir in Therapy of Viral Infections

J Clin Med. 2021 Jan 13;10(2):273. doi: 10.3390/jcm10020273.

Authors

Ryta Łagocka¹, Violetta Dziedziejko², Patrycja Kłos², Andrzej Pawlik³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Pomeranian Medical University, 70-204 Szczecin, Poland.
² Department of Biochemistry and Medical Chemistry, Pomeranian Medical University, 70-204 Szczecin, Poland.
³ Department of Physiology, Pomeranian Medical University, 70-204 Szczecin, Poland.

Abstract

Favipiravir (FPV) is a novel antiviral drug acting as a competitive inhibitor of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), preventing viral transcription and replication. FPV was approved in Japan in 2014 for therapy of influenza unresponsive to standard antiviral therapies. FPV was also used in the therapy of Ebola virus disease (EVD) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms of action, pharmacokinetic parameters, toxicity, and adverse effects of FPV, as well as clinical studies evaluating the use of FPV in the therapy of influenza virus (IV) infection, EVD, and SARS-CoV-2 infection, along with its effectiveness in treating other human RNA infections.

Keywords: favipiravir; influenza; viral infection.

Publication types

Review