Two new anti-viral pills have been shown to be safe and effective against COVID in clinical trials, according to recent press releases. The drugs, molnupiravir, developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, and Paxlovid, developed by Pfizer both appear to significantly reduce hospitalisation in people with early COVID. Some researchers are quietly hopeful that these new weapons in the anti-COVID arsenal could have a big impact, in particular in parts of the world where vaccines are still not widely available, but there are a number of caveats. In this episode of Coronapod, we open the pill boxes and pick through the contents - asking how the drugs work, what side effects we might see and how, if at all, they might change the course of the pandemic.
News: COVID antiviral pills: what scientists still want to know
Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
02 April 2020: Dating an ancient hominid skull, and an ancient Antarctic rainforest
Coronapod: Old treatments and new hopes
25 March 2020: Ultra-fast electrical switches, and computing heart health
Podcast Extra: Rosamund Pike on portraying Marie Curie
Coronapod: “Test, test, test!”
19 March 2020: Rosamund Pike in Radioactive, and the resurgence of Russian science
Podcast Extra: Coronavirus - science in the pandemic
Long Read Podcast: Are feelings more than skin deep?
12 March 2020: An ancient bird trapped in amber, and life beneath the ocean floor
05 March 2020: Ultrafast machine vision, and quicker crystal creation
Backchat: Covering coronavirus
27 February 2020: Mapping fruit flies’ neural circuitry, and perfecting the properties of metallic glass
Podcast Extra: ‘There is lots of anxiety’: a scientist’s view from South Korea
20 February 2020: Improving battery charging, and harnessing energy from the air
13 February 2020: The puzzling structures of muddled materials, and paving the way for the quantum internet
06 February 2020: Out-of-office emails and work-life-balance, and an update on the novel coronavirus outbreak
30 January 2020: Linking Australian bushfires to climate change, and Asimov's robot ethics
23 January: How stress can cause grey hair, and the attitude needed to tackle climate change
16 January 2020: Strange objects at the centre of the galaxy, and improving measurements of online activity
09 January 2020: A look ahead at science in 2020
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free