Fuji’s Avigan Trials for Treatment of COVID-19 Prove Inconclusive

The optics industry has not rested on its laurels during the novel coronavirus outbreak, that’s for sure.

For one, both Canon and Fuji contributed pretty much from day one with Canon providing a testing kit it developed and Fuji’s drug subsidiary offering up its medicine called Avigan.

Also known as Favipiravir, Avigan was prescribed in the beginning of the outbreak as a potential treatment for the disease which, as of yet, has no vaccine or cure. This early success spurred on a wider testing of the drug, the importance of which even became a bit of a scandal for the Japanese Prime Minister when his government failed to meet their initial deadlines for testing the drug.

In fact, Shinzo Abe had hoped it would be approved for treatment in May yet that didn’t happen. And, with the inconclusive results coming in, it doesn’t look like Avigan is going to be available for widespread treatment anytime soon.

Why is the Japanese PM under such pressure to get a drug out in the market that works? Well, they’ve already postponed the 2020 Tokyo Olympics once and it doesn’t look like that will happen a second time.

So far the drug is approved for the treatment of COVID-19 in India and Russia.

Initial positive results out of China is what catapulted the Fuji drug to prominence. In the early days of the outbreak, when very little was known about the disease and even less about a potential treatment, many people in the media and elsewhere latched on to it. On the bright side, since the study’s results were inconclusive, it doesn’t mean that Avigan doesn’t work. We’ll update you on when we get new information.

How have you handled the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown? What do you think of Canon and Fuji’s involvement in fighting the disease? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below if you like.

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