Tests for treatments against Corona continue
A spokesman for the Egyptian Ministry of Health, Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, revealed the details of the new anti-Coronavirus drugs, which the Egyptian government announced to provide to treat people with “Covid-19” disease.
Abdel Ghaffar confirmed in an interview with “Sky News Arabia” that two of these drugs were provided and used in Egyptian government hospitals a month ago, while the third drug was contracted to import and is not yet available.
The Egyptian health spokesman said that the first drug is “molnopiravir”, produced by the American company Merck, and a permit was obtained to produce it locally in Egypt, and it has already been produced and used in government hospitals and pharmacies, and it is oral tablets.
He added that the second drug is “EvoShield” produced by the English company AstraZeneca, and it was contracted to import it, and quantities of it have already been provided in government hospitals and pharmacies and used to treat cases infected with Corona about a month ago, and it is a solution taken by injection into a muscle.
He explained that the third drug is “Paxlovid” produced by the American company Pfizer, and it was contracted to import, but it is not yet available in Egypt, and it is oral tablets.
He pointed out that these drugs were approved by the Scientific Committee to confront Corona in Egypt, to be used in the treatment of people with corona, after ensuring their effectiveness from the reality of the announced experiments that were conducted on them, and that the approval of these drugs was on January 24 last.
Regarding the effectiveness of the medicines that were used to treat patients in Egypt, Abdel Ghaffar said that it is too early to judge that now, noting that the medicines were provided in government hospitals only for free, and the decision to offer them to the private sector is in the hands of the Scientific Committee to confront the Corona epidemic.
It is noteworthy that the Acting Minister of Health, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, indicated, during his presentation of the epidemiological situation at a meeting of the Egyptian government, on Wednesday, to provide the drugs “Baxilovide” and “Evoshield” in all government hospitals, and distribute them to oncology centers and organ transplantation as a first stage.
The second phase will be distributed to dialysis patients, in addition to the local production of the anti-Coronavirus drug “molnopiravir”.