Study concludes remdesivir is effective against coronavirus

WASHINGTON: Antiviral drug remdesivir, which is made by Gilead Sciences, cuts recovery times in Covid-19 patients, according to the full results of a tria.

Complete results from the research, carried out by US government agency the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), were published on Friday by the medical periodical New England Journal of Medicine.

The National Institutes of Health, of which the NIAID is a part, said in a statement that investigators had found “remdesivir was most beneficial for hospitalised patients with severe disease who required supplemental oxygen”.

Remdesivir was found to cut median recovery duration to 11 days among patients administered the drug, compared to the 15 taken by those who were on placebo or standard care.

But the authors of the trial also wrote that the drug did not prevent all deaths. About 7.1% of patients given remdesivir in the trial group died within 14 days compared with 11.9% in the placebo group.

The US authorised the emergency use of remdesivir in hospitals on May 1, followed by Japan, while Europe is considering following suit.