Drugs trial gives hope for treatment of virus
A drug has been shown to treat coronavirus for the first time, cutting the number of days patients take to leave hospital by almost a third.
Remdesivir, an antiviral originally designed to combat ebola, had a ‘‘clearcut significant positive effect in diminishing time to recovery,’’ Anthony Fauci, a leading member of the US coronavirus task force, said.
Announcing the results of the keenly awaited trial at a press conference with President Donald Trump, Fauci said that the success was ‘‘a very important proof of concept’’. He added: ‘‘What it has proven is that a drug can block this virus.’’
The results were a surprise because the drug had appeared to fail in previous smaller studies, most notably one released last week but published in The Lancet yesterday. The new data, which was drawn from a global trial of more than 1000 patients demonstrated an effect that was, Fauci said, ‘‘very optimistic’’.
In the study, which was a ‘‘goldstandard’’ randomised controlled trial, those taking the Gilead Sciences drug recovered after 11 days, compared with
15 for those given a placebo.
In other developments:
■ Almost 2,700 research projects and clinical trials developing new treatments for cancer, diabetes and other diseases have been halted.
■ Scientists warned that Britain’s hospital death rates for the virus were comparable to those for ebola in Africa, with 33 per cent of those entering hospital dying.
Shares in Gilead Sciences, which are traded in New York, jumped almost 7 per cent. Gilead has a stock market value of about US$106 billion. The news also pushed shares in other biotech and pharmaceutical groups higher, leaving Wall Street indices in positive territory.
Other researchers welcomed the results, but cautioned that the drug was not a ‘‘magic bullet’’. The effect was still relatively small, particularly when it came to mortality. Eight per cent of those taking the drug died, versus 11 per cent taking a placebo, a gap that, unlike the recovery data, did not reach statistical significance.
Fauci said the important finding was that they had clear-cut evidence that a drug worked at all. ‘‘We think it’s really opening the door to the fact we have the capability of treating it. We guarantee as more people, more investigators, get involved it’s going to get better and better,’’ he said.
Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases and global health, at the University of Oxford, and chairman of the government’s Nervtag committee, which assesses disease threats, called the early data ‘‘a fantastic result and great news for the fight against
Covid-19’’. He added: ‘‘The next steps are to get the full data out and work on equitable access to remdesivir.’’
Separately, the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said that it aimed to have a coronavirus vaccine for emergency use by autumn, with widespread release in
2021. The company said it was speeding up the testing of its experimental drug, made with Biontech, of Germany.
In a further sign that the global effort against the virus was picking up pace, the NHS has confirmed that bemcentinib, a Norwegian drug developed to treat cancer, was being rushed into human trials in six hospitals after evidence that it could prevent the virus from entering and multiplying in cells.