Author: Aimee Cunningham / Source: Science News
There’s a new flu drug on the shelf, the first in 20 years to get a thumbs-up from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
On October 24, the agency approved the use of the new antiviral drug, called baloxavir marboxil and sold under the brand name Xofluza.
The drug, already available in Japan, works differently to kill the influenza virus from the other main class of flu antivirals, which includes the drug Tamiflu.Antiviral drugs can help alleviate symptoms and shorten the flu’s duration, although flu vaccination remains the best way to prevent illness and death caused by the virus. “Prevention is better than treatment in all things and that’s absolutely true for flu,” says infectious disease physician Andrew Pavia of the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City. “So the first message is: Get your flu shot.”
Many people aren’t getting that message: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports October 25 that less than 40 percent of adults got a flu shot last year, the lowest amount in at least eight seasons. The 2017–2018 season in the United States was particularly deadly; about 80,000 people died of flu or related complications (SN Online: 9/27/18).
The recent bad flu season highlights the importance of having ways to treat the flu, in addition to preventing it. The approval of the new drug is “kind of a big deal in terms of our overall arsenal against flu,” Pavia says.
How does Xofluza work?
It’s a single-dose treatment for people 12 years or older who’ve had flu symptoms for less than two days.
In clinical trials that included more than 1,000 adolescents and adults, a single dose of Xofluza reduced — by around a day to a day and a half — the time a patient experienced flu symptoms such as fever, aches and coughs, compared with a placebo. Although approved for use up to 48 hours after symptoms appear, Xofluza worked best when taken within 24 hours.The drug fights the influenza…
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