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Russian antiviral drug being tested in China as treatment for new coronavirus

The drug can be used as a treatment for 15 types of flu

MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/. Russia’s new antiviral drug Triazavirin is being tested in China as treatment for the novel coronavirus, Russian Deputy Health Minister Sergei Krayevoi said on Tuesday.

"The Chinese have taken Triazavirin to test it," he said.

Triazavirin (TZV) is a broad-spectrum antiviral drug developed in Russia through a joint effort of the Ural Federal University, the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Organic Synthesis, and the Russian Health Ministry’s Influenza Research Institute. It can be used as a treatment for 15 types of flu.

In late December 2019, Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of an unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, a large trade and industrial metropolis in central China with a population of 11 million. The infecting agent was identified as coronavirus 2019-nCoV.

Cases of the new coronavirus have also been reported from 24 other countries, including Australia, Vietnam, India, Canada, the United States, Thailand, and Russia. The World Health Organization has declared the new coronavirus outbreak an international public health emergency.

By now, the number of confirmed cases of the disease in China has exceeded 20,400, with more than 420 killed by this coronavirus. Lethal cases have been also reported outside mainland China.