A report on the therapeutic effect of China’s first COVID-19 oral drug VV116 was released Tuesday.

It concluded that confirmed patients receiving the drug within five days of their first positive test saw better treatment results.

The study led by Zhang Wenhong, head of the infectious disease department at Fudan University's Huashan Hospital in Shanghai, and Fan Xiaohong from the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, has evaluated the therapeutic effect of VV116 for non-severe cases of the Omicron variant. The research paper was published Tuesday in the magazine Emerging Microbes & Infections.

In this study, 136 COVID-19 patients were divided into two groups. Sixty patients in one group took 30 milligrams of VV116 every 12 hours, while the remaining 76 in the control group didn’t receive VV116. Both groups accepted symptomatic treatment, including anti-inflammation.

Data shows that participants who received VV116 within five days of the first positive test had a shorter viral shedding time than the control group (8.56 vs 11.13 days).

Participants who received VV116 after five days ftom the first positive test needed 11.46 days to get a negative result. The control group needed 11.13 days, so there was basically no difference.

Studies on Molnupiravir and Paxlovid, two oral antiviral treatments authorized to treat mild to moderate COVID-19, also showed this rule, backing up the conclusion of earlier treatments and intervention.

The study also collected drug safety data of VV116, and the results showed that there were no serious adverse events.