DEXAMETHASONE

CATEGORY: Corticosteroid STATUS IN INDIA: Not approved for Covid-19, approved to treat rheumatoid arthritis, allergies. WHAT IT DOES: Modulates immune-mediated lung injury and slows progression to respiratory failure and death. It cut the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators.

WHEN SHOULD IT BE USED: For mild to moderate disease

MODE OF DELIVERY: Oral tablets

For those on oxygen, it cut deaths by a fifth.

WHEN SHOULD IT BE USED: Given to severely ill patients on invasive ventilation or oxygenation. It does not help with mild or moderate disease. MODE OF DELIVERY: Intravenous in ICU, as tablet for less seriously ill patients.

STATUS IN INDIA: Approved WHAT IT DOES: Calms the aberrant hyper-immune response called cytokine storm by acting against inflammatory chemicals to fight infection. WHEN SHOULD IT BE USED: Moderate to severe disease MODE OF DELIVERY: Intravenous drip

nNEW DELHI: Gilead Sciences has said it will soon start clinical trials for inhaled formulation of its antiviral drug remdesivir used for the treatment of covid-19. The US drugmaker said the trials will begin in August.

“Remdesivir, our investigational antiviral medicine, is currently given to patients intravenously through daily infusions in the hospital,” Gilead Sciences said in a statement, adding that the inhaled formulation will be given through a nebulizer, which could potentially allow for easier administrationoutsidethehospital at early stages of the disease.

This could have significant implications in helping stem the tide of the pandemic, it said.

“We have already learned a lot about how remdesivir works in a