Sunday, May 24, 2020

Anti-viral drug remdesivir effective against coronavirus, study finds

EXPECT GILEAD SHARES TO RISE 

Remdesivir, injected intravenously daily for 10 days, accelerated the recovery of hospitalized patients with COVID-19, a study f
Remdesivir, injected intravenously daily for 10 days, accelerated the recovery of hospitalized patients with COVID-19, a study found
Anti-viral drug remdesivir cuts recovery times in coronavirus patients, according to the full results of a trial published Friday night, three weeks after America's top infectious diseases expert said the study showed the medication has "clear-cut" benefits.
Complete results from the research, which was carried out by US government agency the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), were published by leading medical periodical the New England Journal of Medicine.
The United States authorized the emergency use of remdesivir in hospitals on May 1, followed by Japan, while Europe is considering following suit.
The study found that remdesivir, injected intravenously daily for 10 days, accelerated the recovery of hospitalized COVID-19 patients compared to a placebo in clinical tests on just over a thousand patients across 10 countries.
On April 29, NIAID director Anthony Fauci, who has become the US government's trusted face on the coronavirus pandemic, said preliminary evidence indicated remdesivir had a "clear-cut, significant and  in diminishing the time to recovery."
The National Institutes of Health, of which the NIAID is a part, said Friday in a statement online that investigators found "remdesivir was most beneficial for hospitalized patients with severe disease who required ."
But the authors of the trial wrote that the drug did not prevent all deaths.
"Given high mortality despite the use of remdesivir, it is clear that treatment with an anti-viral drug alone is not likely to be sufficient," they said.
About 7.1 percent of patients given  in the trial group died within 14 days—compared with 11.9 percent in the placebo group.
However, the result is just below the statistical reliability threshold, meaning it could be down to chance rather than the capability of the .Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
More information: John H. Beigel et al. Remdesivir for the Treatment of Covid-19—Preliminary Report, New England Journal of Medicine (2020). DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2007764
Journal information: New England Journal of Medicine © 2020 AFP

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