TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Japan approves dexamethasone as coronavirus treatment
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
A picture taken on June 16, 2020 in Paris shows tablets of Dectancyl, a drug manufactured by Sanofi containing dexamethasone.Japan's health ministry has approved dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, as a second treatment of COVID-19 after a trial in Britain showed the drug reduced death rates in hospitalized patients. (AFP/Bertrand Guay )
J
apan's health ministry has approved dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, as a second treatment of COVID-19 after a trial in Britain showed the drug reduced death rates in hospitalized patients.
The ministry included dexamethasone as an option for treatment along with antiviral drug remdesivir in a recent revision to its handbook. The revision was widely reported by Japanese media on Wednesday.
In results announced last month, a trial by researchers in the United Kingdom showed dexamethasone as the first drug to save lives of COVID-19 patients in what scientists said was a major breakthrough in the coronavirus pandemic.
Japan's Nichi-Iko Pharmaceutical Co is among those that produce the drug.
