Health Times Zhou Xinyu
Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, every once in a while there has been a hot discussion about the "special drug" of the new crown, from remdesivir and hydroxychloroquine abroad to the intravenous injection of COVID-19 human immunoglobulin developed in China, as well as the recently approved neutralizing antibody combination therapy drug. Whenever a class of drugs appears, many media report with headlines such as "specific drugs".
This also caused everyone to think: how to define "special drugs"? And how to use the title of "special drug" for a drug prudently? Zhang Boli, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told The Health Times that everyone's expectations for the "special drug" of new crown pneumonia are understandable, but from a scientific point of view, the title of "special drug" should be used with caution.
It is not rigorous to call it a "special drug" just developed and listed
"Special drugs are generally considered to be drugs with special efficacy for a disease, and a little more specific is a drug with exact clinical efficacy and mild toxic side effects." Academician Zhang Boli told the Health Times, "Special drugs are recognized after strict clinical evaluation, so special drugs should be a macro review of the epidemic after the end of the epidemic stage, comprehensive summary and analysis of the epidemic treatment, and then evaluate the drugs that play a good clinical efficacy and have mild side effects." ”
Academician Zhang Boli said, "When the new drug was just developed and listed, it was called a 'special drug', which is an imprecise name, and after extensive speculation, it may have a misleading effect on the masses." The real-world efficacy of drugs, safety issues, antiviral resistance mutations, etc. all require extensive and long-term clinical testing to make a conclusion. Remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, etc. were initially touted as special drugs, and now it can be considered to be rash, which is obviously contrary to reality.
Academician Zhang Boli told The Health Times: "The concept of 'special drugs' should be used cautiously in media reports, and the real effective drugs need to be judged by clinical effects in the end." ”
China's epidemic prevention and control system is currently the "special medicine" of the new crown
Due to the emergence of the new crown virus mutated strain, the epidemic prevention situation is still grim, it can be said that the report of the new crown "special drug" brings hope to everyone. "It is understandable that everyone has good expectations for the 'special drug' of new crown pneumonia, and the emergence of new effective drugs will help the early victory of the global fight against the epidemic." Academician Zhang Boli said.
"We also need to realize that the new crown epidemic will not disappear in an instant because of the birth of a new drug, and practice has proved that the complete set of epidemic prevention and control system formed by China's group prevention and group control and integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine treatment is an effective weapon against new crown pneumonia." Academician Zhang Boli told the Health Times that although there has been a sporadic epidemic caused by local imported viruses in China recently, it can achieve zero cases in a relatively short period of time under this sensitive and efficient prevention and control system, and since May last year, there have only been a few cases of new crown pneumonia infection deaths in China, so compared with the "special drugs" that have not yet been tested in actual combat, China's effective epidemic prevention and control program is more "special effect".
