Fujifilm says medicine research for COVID-19 may last until July

TOKYO, Jun 7 (Reuters) – Fujifilm Holdings Corp’s investigation into Avigan as a potential treatment for COVID-19 may last until July, the company said Sunday, a further setback in the Japanese company’s race to find a vaccine.

“There is a possibility that clinical trials will continue in July,” said a Fujifilm spokesperson, responding to a Nikkei report that any approval will be delayed until July or later, due to a lack of patients for the trials.

After Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government gave up on getting the drug approved in late May, the goal was to complete clinical trials this month.

But the researchers have only been able to get about 70% of the patients needed for the trials, and since it takes 28 days to get results, the process will continue at least until July, the Nikkei business daily said, citing an unidentified source.

The spokesman said Fujifilm does not release details of the progress of clinical trials, but has expanded the number of medical institutions cooperating in the trials. “Our goal is to complete clinical trials as soon as possible.”

Drug makers around the world are struggling to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus, which has infected nearly 7 million people worldwide and killed nearly 400,000.

Many countries are focusing on medicines like the antiviral remdesivir from Gilead Sciences Inc. and some are using the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, promoted by United States President Donald Trump. Abe’s government has defended the Japanese candidate Avigan, also known as Favipiravir.

Countries that have been successful in reducing infections have sometimes found, paradoxically, difficulties in maintaining clinical trials due to decreased patient sample sizes.

Japan has prevented the explosive outbreaks seen in some other nations, with around 17,000 infections, and the number of daily infections has been declining, according to NHK public broadcaster and the Ministry of Health.