Russia will start administering its first approved antiviral drug to treat coronavirus patients next week, its state financial backer told Reuters, a move it described as "a game changer" that should speed a return to normal economic life.
Russian hospitals can begin giving the drug to patients from June 11, with enough to treat around 60,000 people per month, the head of Russia's RDIF sovereign wealth fund told Reuters in an interview.
There is currently no approved vaccine for the highly contagious and sometimes fatal illness and no consensus within the global scientific community about the efficacy of medication such as the Russian modified antiviral drug.
Registered under the name Avifavir, it is the first potential coronavirus treatment to be approved by Russia's health ministry, however. It appeared on a government list of approved drugs on Saturday after clinical trials.