ABOVE: Illustration of the influenza virus
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An antiflu medication first approved in Japan in 2018 and given the green light later that year in the US may be fostering the emergence of drug-resistant strains of influenza. A study published yesterday (November 25) in Nature Microbiology finds that nearly one-fourth of patients who took baloxavir (Xofluza) harbored flu viruses with mutations in their genomes that made them less vulnerable to the drug. The mutations were not present before the treatment.
“In a worst case scenario, these mutations could render the drug entirely useless,” Andrew Pekosz, a molecular biologist at Johns Hopkins who was not involved in the study, tells Endpoints News. “They haven’t yet, and it’s not clear why that’s been the case.”
In prior cell culture studies and clinical trials, scientists had observed mutant influenza sometimes occurring after Xofluza exposure. Each of the mutant viruses carried the same ...
