Newly-approved drugs to treat FIP in Cyprus will cost €100 per box
Drugs intended for humans, which were provided to COVID-19 patients and are no longer in use, will now be repurposed for managing rising cases of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), after a Cabinet decision.
According to Phileleftheros, 2,000 boxes containing molnupiravir formulations with an expiration date of 31/12/2023 will be made available to the public to use to treat cats.
The drugs can be bought for €100 per box, which corresponds to €2.50 per tablet. Each box contains 40 tablets of 200 mg each.
Dosage
The Cyprus Veterinary Association has developed a therapeutic protocol for administering molnupiravir to cats, based on international literature. According to the protocol, the recommended dosage varies depending on the type (liquid or dry) of the disease, ranging from 10mg to 15mg per kilogram of the animal’s weight, twice a day, for a treatment duration of 84 days.
Therefore, for treating an adult cat of average weight, approximately 120mg per day is needed, which is equivalent to about 1-1.5 boxes of molnupiravir.
The distribution of these formulations will be carried out on a case-by-case basis to the guardian of the animal, based on a prescription issued by a private veterinarian. The formulation will be provided to the guardian by the district offices of the Veterinary Services.
Molnupiravir will not be used to treat COVID-19 in humans anymore, except in exceptional cases where other antiviral drugs cannot be used for medical reasons.
Outbreak decimating cats
This decision to allocate the drugs to treat cats comes in response to a significant increase in FIP cases among cats in Cyprus, which has been described as the first recorded FIP pandemic worldwide.
According to a statement by the Cyprus Veterinary Association, approximately 8,000 clinical cases of feline infectious peritonitis have been recorded from January to the first ten days of July 2023. This number is indeed higher compared to previous years, where about 2,800 clinical cases were reported in 2022 and 1,350 in 2021.
However, animal activists believe that the number is much higher as many animals perish or die on the streets without being recorded.
Feline infectious peritonitis is not transmissible to humans.
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