A Chinese oral COVID-19 nucleoside drug, VV116, has commenced global trials in moderate and severe COVID-19 patients after having proven to be safe and well-tolerated in the tests of healthy people.

The drug exhibited "satisfactory safety and tolerability" in three phase-1 trials, which were conducted among 86 healthy participants from November 2021 to January this year in Shanghai, according to a study published this week in the international journal Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica.

The early-stage human trials also show that VV116 tablets can be rapidly absorbed after oral administration and taken on an empty stomach or after a regular meal. No deaths or serious adverse events were reported.

The drug developers include several institutes under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co., Ltd. and Suzhou-based Vigonvita Life Sciences Co., Ltd.

VV116 was first approved for clinical trials in Uzbekistan and allowed to be used in the treatment of moderate to severe COVID-19 patients in the country in late 2021.

Based on the positive phase-1 trial results, the drug has advanced to global phase-2/3 trials to further evaluate its efficacy and safety, the researchers said in the study.