Arbidol is an antiviral drug that has been primarily researched in Russia and China. It has been shown to inhibit a variety of type A and B influenza strains, including H5N1. It inhibits strains of H5N1 that are resistant to the amantadine drugs, and it synergistically or additively increases the action of amantadine, remantadin, ribavirin and ribamidil. PMID:16206613 (cache)

While some articles concluded that this medicine was 'well tolerated,' another noted the main side effects were gastrointestinal distress and elevated transaminase (a liver enzyme). PMID:15266832 (cache)



The chemical structure of Arbidol is 6 - Bromo - 4(dimethylaminomethyl) - 5- hydroxy- 1 - methyl - 2 - (phenylthiomethyl) - 1H - indole - 3 -carboxylic acid ethyl ester hydrochloride.

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