WASHINGTON, May 23, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – 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 positive
effect 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
supplemental oxygen.”
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 remdesivir 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 drug.