WASHINGTON – A new study published on Friday found remdesivir to cutrecovery times in coronavirus patients, showing the medication has”clear-cut” benefits.
Complete results from the research, which was carried out by US governmentagency the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
The United States authorised the emergency use of remdesivir in hospitalson 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 hospitalised COVID-19 patients compared to aplacebo in clinical tests on just over a thousand patients across 10countries.
On April 29, NIAID director Anthony Fauci, who has become the USgovernment´s trusted face on the coronavirus pandemic, said preliminaryevidence indicated remdesivir had a “clear-cut, significant and positiveeffect in diminishing the time to recovery.”
The National Institutes of Health, of which the NIAID is a part, saidFriday in a statement online that investigators found “remdesivir was mostbeneficial for hospitalized patients with severe disease who requiredsupplemental oxygen.”
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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 thattreatment with an anti-viral drug alone is not likely to be sufficient,”they said.
About 7.1% of patients given remdesivir in the trial group died within 14days — compared with 11.9% 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.- APP/AFP
