Name: Researchers Link COVID-19 Drug to New Virus Mutations in Patients
Uploaded: 2023-02-03T04:43:45.000Z
Description: A widely used COVID-19 treatment drug could be linked to mutations that create new variants of the disease, according to researchers in a new pre-print study.

NTD Newsroom comprises teams of reporters, editors, and producers assigned to cover breaking news and other stories.


NTD Newsroom

NTD Plus

News

News you can trust from the U.S. and around the world. Critical information and insight. We cover the stories that others don’t. NTD News Today airs Monday–Friday at 11 a.m. ET.

NTD News Today

Pentagon Scraps Deployment of 4,000 Troops to Poland

9/11 Memorial and Museum Adds 7th Moment of Silence

AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon Launch Joint Venture to Tackle Dead Zones

Stefania Cox is an NTD News anchor and national correspondent based at the network's global headquarters in New York City. Stefania anchors "NTD Newsroom," and co-anchors "NTD News Today" weekdays at 10:00 am ET.

Stefania Cox

Trump Committed to US Defense, Prosperity, Amid China Talks: Expert

Jerome Powell Ends Tenure as Fed Chair

US Government Sues Chick-fil-A Over Religious Rights

Melina Wisecup is NTD's congressional correspondent based in Washington, covering Capitol Hill and campaign politics.

Melina Wisecup

California Gubernatorial Candidates Make Closing Pitches to Voters 

Jason Blair is a national correspondent for NTD News based in California. 

Jason Blair

Federal Judge Partly Blocks Texas Immigration Law

Trump Announces National Garden of American Heroes Plans

Top Officer: Navy Funding Could Lapse by July

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 15)

Paul Greaney is an NTD news anchor and producer. Since joining the company in 2018, he has anchored the station’s flagship Evening News broadcast, launched the NTD Business show, and produced documentary reports on pointed issues. 

The highlight of Paul’s time in the field was his coverage of the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Paul Greaney

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 14)

Kevin Hogan is an NTD News data reporter and national correspondent based at the network's global headquarters in New York City. Kevin covers breaking news, as well as U.S. and global current events. He conveys the news through data visualizations and investigates pressing issues.

Kevin Hogan

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 13)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 12)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 11)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 8)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 7)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 6)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 5)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 4)

Fast, compelling, first-hand news from China. China in Focus airs Monday–Friday at 8 p.m. ET.

China in Focus

China Sends Warships to Pacific Drill as Tensions With Japan Rise

Reuters is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages.

Reuters

We present news that is truthful and based on facts, outside of the political fog. Instead of focusing on the negative things happening around us, our mission is to give our viewers a good morning with empathetic and uplifting stories. Our aim is to provide an antidote to negativity by shining a light on the best side of people. We speak to inspiring people who positively impact communities, pursue topics that represent our common human values, and will never miss an opportunity to bring you heartwarming stories.

NTD Good Morning

2 US Embassy Personnel Assigned to Cartel Case Killed in Car Accident

The Associated Press is an American not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. 

The Associated Press

US News

Gunman Kills 8 Children, Including 7 of His Own, in Louisiana Mass Shooting

Flora Hua is a reporter based at NTD's global headquarters in New York City, where she covers China news, U.S.-China relations, and human rights issues. Flora primarily contributes to NTD's "China in Focus."  

Flora Hua

Trump: Seized Iranian Ship May Have ‘A Gift From China’

Joseph Lord is a congressional reporter for The Epoch Times.


Joseph Lord

Aldgra Fredly is a freelance writer covering U.S. and Asia Pacific news for The Epoch Times.

Aldgra Fredly

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani Hospitalized in Critical Condition: Spokesman

Wildfires Across Georgia and Florida Have Destroyed Nearly 50 Homes and Are Forcing Evacuations

US Warns of China Hacks via Routers, Smart Devices

Juliet Song is an international correspondent exclusively covering China news for NTD. She primarily contributes to NTD's "China in Focus," covering U.S.-China relations, the Chinese regime's human rights abuses, and domestic unrest inside China.

Juliet Song

2 Americans Among Suspected Communist Rebels Killed in Clashes With Troops, Philippine Officials Say

Ryan Morgan is a reporter for The Epoch Times focusing on military and foreign affairs. He was previously a news writer for NTD. 


Ryan Morgan

Mari Otsu is NTD's White House correspondent based in Washington. 

Mari Otsu

World News

Middle East

Iran

3 US Warships Fend Off Iranian Attacks, Trump Says Ceasefire Still Holds

Health News

3 Dead in Suspected Hantavirus Outbreak on Cruise Ship in Atlantic Ocean: WHO

A widely used COVID-19 treatment drug could be linked to mutations that create new variants of the disease, according to researchers in a new pre-print study.

Published in Medxriv (<a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.26.23284998v2.full.pdf">pdf</a>), researchers cited an analysis of more than 13 million viral genomes in worldwide databases and found that the drug Lagevrio, also known as molnupiravir, that there were mutations linked to the drug. Certain mutations, they wrote, were more common in nations that widely used the drug, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

There were a lower number of mutations in France and Canada, where the drug isn’t authorized for use, they found. The survey of viral genomes found that some people who are treated with the medication can generate new novel variants of COVID-19 that spread.

“It is possible that some patients treated with molnupiravir might not fully clear SARS-CoV2 infections, with the potential for onward transmission of molnupiravir-mutated viruses,” the researchers wrote in the paper, which has not been peer-reviewed. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19.

They wrote that “new variants of SARS-CoV-2 are generated through acquisition of mutations that enhance properties including immune evasion and intrinsic transmissibility,” stressing that “the impact of molnupiravir treatment on the trajectory of variant generation and transmission is difficult to predict.”

“On the one hand, molnupiravir increases the amount of sequence diversity in the surviving viral population in the host and this might be expected to provide more material for selection to act on during intra-host evolution towards these properties that increase fitness,” the paper said. “However, a high proportion of induced mutations are likely to be deleterious or neutral, and it is necessary to consider the counterfactual to molnupiravir treatment.”

Researchers in the United States and at the Francis Crick Institute, Imperial College London, and other UK institutions partook in the study.

“These effects are visible in these databases,” researcher Theo Sanderson, from the Francis Crick Institute, <a href="https://www.livemint.com/science/health/merck-covid-drug-linked-to-new-virus-mutations-study-says-11675300603221.html">told</a> Bloomberg News. “It appears that people are being treated, some of them aren’t clearing their infections, and some are passing them on.”

Sanderson <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/could-popular-covid-19-antiviral-supercharge-pandemic">added to</a> Science magazine that it’s not clear if it will lead to variants that are more transmissible or pathogenic. “We are not coming to a conclusion about risk,” he said.

But a critic of the drug, virologist William Haseltine, chair of ACCESS Health International, told the same publication that “it’s very clear that viable mutant viruses can survive [molnupiravir treatment] and compete” with existing COVID-19 variants. Raymond Schinazi, a medicinal chemist at the Emory University School of Medicine, said the findings are “much ado about nothing.”
<figure id="attachment_4654978" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 640px;"><a href="https://admin4.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2022/08/1.tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXMPEI780W6-FILEDIMAGE-1200x800.jpg"><img class="wp-image-4654978 size-large" src="https://admin4.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2022/08/1.tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXMPEI780W6-FILEDIMAGE-1200x800.jpg" alt="merck" width="640" height="427" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Signage is seen at the Merck & Co. headquarters in Kenilworth, N.J., on Nov. 13, 2021. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)</figcaption></figure>
Molnupiravir became the first antiviral medication approved to combat COVID-19 in the U.S. and UK after it was approved in late 2021 by regulators. A number of other countries have approved it since then.
<h2>Merck Disputes Study</h2>
The study authors did not indicate whether they have direct proof that the mutations arose in patients who took the Merck drug, Merck spokesman Robert Josephson told media outlets, disputing the authors’ conclusions. Researchers instead drew their conclusions from “circumstantial associations between viral sequence origin and timeframe of sequence collection in countries where molnupiravir is available,” he <a href="https://www.livemint.com/science/health/merck-covid-drug-linked-to-new-virus-mutations-study-says-11675300603221.html">said</a>.

“There is no evidence to indicate that any antiviral agent has contributed to the emergence of circulating variants,” Josephson told Bloomberg News. The virus has mutated during the COVID-19 pandemic due to its widespread transmission.

The spokesman also pointed to research that was carried out in animals that show molnupiravir didn’t cause mutations.

The Epoch Times has contacted Merck for comment.
<h2>Other Details</h2>
Officially approved COVID-19 treatment options have become more scarce in recent weeks. Several days ago, the FDA withdrew its authorization for AstraZeneca’s Evusheld, removing it from the U.S. market.

The only treatments available for Americans are Paxlovid and Gilead Sciences Inc.’s remdesivir, which some doctors have flagged as having significant side effects such as kidney failure.

With the FDA’s latest move, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/cdc-issues-new-covid-19-guidance-after-fda-makes-change_5018430.html">issued</a> guidance last week to people with weakened immune systems. They are advised to now wear masks in public and engage in 6-foot social distancing.

“Among persons with immunocompromise and their household members and close contacts, prevention measures including wearing a high-quality and well-fitting mask, maintaining physical distance from others (at least six feet), improving indoor ventilation, practicing frequent handwashing, and developing a care plan, should be considered in addition to receipt of a bivalent booster dose,” the CDC <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/cdc-issues-new-covid-19-guidance-after-fda-makes-change_5018430.html">said</a> on Jan. 27.

<em>From <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/researchers-link-covid-19-drug-to-new-virus-mutations-in-patients_5029633.html">The Epoch Times</a></em>

Videos

04_Top Stories

Premium Picks

Latest Clips

COVID-19

Merck

Management

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. 

Jack Phillips

Latest and breaking news, documentaries, movies, and lifestyle content on NTD+.
 
Empower your knowledge and elevate your spirit with NTD+, your go-to destination for truthful news, insightful documentaries, and captivating lifestyle content that enriches your life.