Summary
All 3 of these drugs are approved for use. Rimantadine is usually interchangeable with amantadine and is less toxic. Ribavirin can have very nasty side effects. Not clear from the report is whether the company is marketing a use of all 3 drugs or whether they are packaging the 3 in one pill. It is a long way off to prove utility in human disease.
Analysis
This may or may not be important news. The proof will be in demonstrating tangible results in humans with influenza, both seasonal and novel H1H1 (swine) influenza. When initiating treatment, one rarely knows for sure which influenza is being treated. Moreover, in the absence of resistance to one or more antiviral drugs, the combination will have to be shown to be more effective than using one drug alone. If someone is sick enough to need such aggressive therapy, it is likely that they will need to be in the hospital. Therefore the market need for this triple combo of drugs will be much less than the number of people infected with influenza. On the other hand, if this treatment was used on all people with influenza, the numbers of side effects and development of resistance to these drugs is likely to be very high.
Bottom line: human studies are needed in specific populations in order to demonstrate that the in vitro findings are clinical relevant.
