Japanese flu drug 'clearly effective' in treating coronavirus, says China. From The Guardian...

[thesquanderer]

32. People here seem to be overly optimistic about this. It would not make the problem go away.

Of course, it's very significant, but as the article says:

Patients who were given the medicine in Shenzhen turned negative for the virus after a median of four days after becoming positive, compared with a median of 11 days for those who were not treated with the drug, public broadcaster NHK said.

Meaning: The people who would get better anyway (which is most people) get better sooner. That's helpful, but doesn't directly address either lethality or spread. Though it would allow people to end their quarantines sooner.

In addition, X-rays confirmed improvements in lung condition in about 91% of the patients who were treated with favipiravir, compared to 62% or those without the drug.

I think this is more important, but it is still only a limited treatment, since these numbers indicate that 29% of those who experience lung impairment are still not helped by this drug. 62% see these improvements even without the drug (meaning 38% don't); with the drug only 9% don't (the difference between 100% and 91%); so compared to the current situation, the drug is helping the difference between the 38% and the 9%, which is 29%.

Also worth noting:

Doctors in Japan are using the same drug in clinical studies on coronavirus patients with mild to moderate symptoms... {it is} not as effective in people with more severe symptoms.

but if testing becomes easily and widely available, hopefully it is more often caught before symptoms become severe.

I think this is great, I just caution people about thinking a full cure looks to be around the corner based on this info.