Wangshan Wangshui's new oral medication for COVID-19 has the potential to inhibit the Nipah virus, but its application is still a long way off.

On the morning of January 27th, the Hong Kong-listed company behind VV116, Wang Shan Wang Shui, soared more than 10% in midday trading. However, for VV116 to become a truly effective drug against Nipah virus, it still needs to undergo stages such as human clinical trials, application for market approval, and final marketing approval. Currently, it is only at the preclinical research stage, so it is still far from actual application. Professor Kim Dongyan, Dean of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Hong Kong and Senior Vice President of the Research Institute of the University of Hong Kong, told reporters that Nipah virus is not a new virus. It has appeared several times in outbreaks in Malaysia, Singapore, India, and Bangladesh from 1998 to now. In Kim Dongyan's view, the lack of effective vaccines and treatments for Nipah virus over the years is also related to insufficient funding for research and comparatively low number of cases. "The fatality rate of Nipah virus is very high, but the transmission rate is not high, so each time it appears, the scale of transmission is still small."