Oseltamivir Phosphate

FRIDAY, Jan. 17, 2025 -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is urging health care workers to accelerate bird flu testing for patients hospitalized with flu symptoms, as the H5N1 avian influenza outbreak continues to grow in the United States and Canada. The advisory, issued Jan. 16, recommends that health care providers perform a second test for bird flu within 24 hours of hospital admission for any patient suspected of having seasonal or H5N1 avian influenza -- otherwise known as bird flu. It also emphasizes starting antiviral treatment, such as Tamiflu , immediately, without waiting for test results. Delays in diagnosing bird flu can complicate public health investigations, delay treatment for exposed individuals and affect hospital infection control, according to a report in The Washington Post . Patients who are not tested promptly may struggle to remember where they may have been exposed seven to 10 days before becoming sick, as well as others they may have exposed, said Dr. Nirav Shah , the CDC’s principal deputy director . “The more time that passes, the more [a patient’s] memories fade,” he told The Post. Bird flu has sickened more people in the ongoing outbreak. Earlier this month, a Louisiana man became the first U.S. resident to die from bird flu, and a Canadian girl spent two months hospitalized with severe illness. Public health officials have also confirmed an increasing number of bird flu infections in domestic cats linked to raw pet food or raw milk exposure. Who's most at risk? The CDC continues to stress that the risk of bird flu is low for the general public . However, an updated public health risk assessment notes that certain groups face a higher risk, including: Seasonal flu cases remain high nationwide, making it essential to distinguish between standard influenza and avian influenza quickly. Most hospitals lack the capability to test for bird flu on-site and must send specimens to public health labs, which can delay results. "By the time test results come back, the patients may already be discharged and their household contacts may no longer be candidates for effective antiviral treatment," Shah explained. As of today, 67 people have been infected by bird flu, most of them dairy or poultry workers, all of whom recovered. However, the Louisiana man who died had direct contact with sick birds in his backyard flock. The CDC recommends the following measures to curb the spread of bird flu: Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

Data support favorable safety and tolerability profile with no serious adverse events (SAEs) or study-related drug discontinuations Enrollment to be extended due to low influenza infection among challenged participants; virology results are uninterpretable Dec. 31, 2024 -- Cocrystal Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: COCP) (“Cocrystal” or the “Company”) announces plans to extend enrollment in the Phase 2a human challenge study with its investigational, broad-spectrum, oral influenza PB2 inhibitor CDI-42344 due to unexpectedly low influenza infection among study participants who were challenged with a H3N2 viral strain. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2a study is evaluating the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics (PK), antiviral activity and clinical measurements of CC-42344 at a single site in the United Kingdom. CC-42344 is a drug candidate in development as an oral treatment for pandemic avian and seasonal influenza A infections. In December 2023, Cocrystal Pharma announced enrollment of the first patient in this study and in May 2024, the Company announced full enrollment of 78 subjects. “While CC-42344 showed a favorable safety and tolerability profile, we’re disappointed by the low infectivity rate of the challenge influenza strain used in this study. The establishment of robust influenza infection in healthy, uninfected study subjects is critical to determine clinical endpoints for evaluating antiviral molecules. The low infectivity obtained in this study hindered antiviral data analysis,” said Sam Lee, Ph.D., Cocrystal’s President and co-CEO. “We remain optimistic about CC-42344 due to its unique mechanism of action with a high barrier to developing resistance, which could render it a best-in-class antiviral treatment for pandemic and seasonal influenza infections. We are also encouraged by CC-42344’s favorable safety and tolerability profile from the Phase 2a study to date, with no SAEs and no drug-related discontinuations by study participants. “We are working with the clinical research organization to prepare a protocol amendment for approval by the United Kingdom Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in order to extend enrollment in this study, and to ensure necessary infection rates among enrolled study subjects,” he added. CC-42344 is a new class of antiviral treatment designed to effectively block an essential step in the viral replication and transcription of pandemic and seasonal influenza A and was discovered using the Company’s proprietary structure-based drug discovery platform technology. CC-42344 showed excellent in vitro antiviral activity against pandemic and seasonal influenza A strains, as well as strains that are resistant to Tamiflu® and Xofluza®. In late 2022, Cocrystal reported favorable safety and tolerability results from a Phase 1 study in healthy subjects conducted in Australia. The Company initiated the Phase 2a human challenge study in December 2024 following authorization from the MHRA. In June 2024, the Company reported in vitro studies demonstrating that CC-42344 inhibited the activity of the PB2 protein in the new highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) PB2 protein recently identified in humans. Influenza is a major global health threat that may become more challenging to treat due to the emergence of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses and resistance to approved influenza antivirals. Each year there are approximately 1 billion cases of seasonal influenza worldwide, 3-5 million severe illnesses and up to 650,000 deaths. On average, about 8% of the U.S. population contracts influenza each season. In addition to the health risk, influenza is responsible for an estimated $11.2 billion in direct and indirect costs in the U.S. annually. Cocrystal’s proprietary structural biology, along with its expertise in enzymology and medicinal chemistry, enable its development of novel antiviral agents. The Company’s platform provides a three-dimensional structure of inhibitor complexes at near-atomic resolution, providing immediate insight to guide Structure Activity Relationships. This helps to identify novel binding sites and allows for a rapid turnaround of structural information through highly automated X-ray data processing and refinement. The goal of this technology is to facilitate the development of best-in-class antiviral therapies that have fast onset of action and/or shortened treatment time, are safe, well tolerated and easy to administer, are effective against all viral subtypes that cause disease and have a high barrier to viral resistance. Cocrystal Pharma, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company discovering and developing novel antiviral therapeutics that target the replication process of influenza viruses, coronaviruses (including SARS-CoV-2), noroviruses and hepatitis C viruses. Cocrystal employs unique structure-based technologies and Nobel Prize-winning expertise to create first- and best-in-class antiviral drugs. For further information about Cocrystal, please visit www.cocrystalpharma.com. The content above comes from the network. if any infringement, please contact us to modify.