STAT News reported on Thursday that remdesivir is an experimental drug which has been administered to coronavirus patients, who have experienced speedy recovery with most of them going home in just a few days. STAT News made the report after they got a video of a conversation about the trial.
Quoting the leading doctor on the trial STAT News stated “The patients taking part in a clinical trial of the drug have all had severe respiratory symptoms and fever, but were able to leave the hospital after less than a week of treatment .”
In the video, Dr. Kathleen Mullane, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Chicago and the lead on the trial said: “The best news is that most of our patients have already been discharged, which is great. We’ve only had two patients perish.”
There are ongoing trials of the drug in many other clinical centers, as well. Testing of the drug in 2,400 patients with severe Covid-19 symptoms in 152 trial sites around the world are being sponsored by Gilead. 1,600 patients with moderate symptoms at 169 hospitals and clinics around the world are also being tested. Gilead has expectations that there would be results from the trial by the end of the month.
In a statement to CNN the company stated: “We understand the urgent need for a COVID-19 treatment and the resulting interest in data on our investigational antiviral drug remdesivir.”
Gilead also said “The totality of the data need to be analyzed in order to draw any conclusions from the trial. Anecdotal reports, while encouraging, do not provide the statistical power necessary to determine the safety and efficacy profile of remdesivir as a treatment for Covid-19.”
Source:https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/16/health/coronavirus-remdesivir-trial/index.html