A LASTING solution to the coronavirus pandemic will require a further, “more effective” defence alongside vaccines, a leading immunologist has said, with hopes it will arrive this year.
It would also mean the immunosuppressed – those who have a weaker immune system – could live with less fear of contracting severe illness from the virus.
Professor Katz suggested a protease inhibitor, akin to PrEP medication which protects against infections from HIV, could be used to stop coronavirus from replicating within an infected person’s body.
He said: “You need an inhibitor of the virus itself, that targets the enzymes that this virus uses to replicate – [that] remains what I hope is going to happen during the coming here.”
Last week, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved Paxlovid, a Pfizer-developed antiviral which “works by inhibiting a protease required for virus replication”, it said, alongside another antiviral approved in November.
