Analysis: Antiviral TPOXX, used for mpox no better than placebo, NIH

Antiviral used for mpox no better than placebo, NIH says Just as mpox is declared a global health emergency, the antiviral tecovirimat is found to be no better than placebo against it. Jason Mast STAT

The National Institutes of Health said Thursday that an antiviral often used to treat mpox did not resolve patients’ symptoms faster than placebo in a randomized trial.

The results are notable because the drug, tecovirimat, has rarely been studied clinically for mpox, despite its wide use during the 2022 and 2023 outbreaks in the U.S. and Europe.

Tecovirimat, marketed as TPOXX, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2018 for smallpox, a related virus that’s been eradicated but remains a bioterrorism concern. Doctors hoped it would also be effective for mpox, because of similarities between the two pathogens. But data were largely limited to animal studies and case reports.

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