> An oral drug would allow you to buy pills and convalesce at home, conserving valuable hospital resources. That's why the new results (sadly without proper pl

> An oral drug would allow you to buy pills and convalesce at home, conserving valuable hospital resources. That's why the new results (sadly without proper placebo) of lopinavir/ritonavir/ribavirin that came out are interesting (IIRC, they can be administered orally). The first studies (published in NEJM) flopped completely, likely because they were administered too late (as noted by the authors themselves). The new study on Lancet tells that the tide can be turned if they're administered within 7 days of symptom onset. Unfortunately, the authors did not use a placebo arm, and compared the cocktail alone against cocktail + subcutaneous injection of interferon-beta. The latter seems better, but as I said before, we don't know if it's identical to "no administration". The current trials in the USA and China of favipiravir (Avigan), which seemed to halve hospital stay in a small (80 patients) Chinese study suffer from the same problem, as they're compared to standard of care (which means loads of things). I don't know anything about the Phase III study started in Japan, though.