The Indian Council of Medical Research on Monday said how the anitiviral used during Ebola breakout can be highly effective in stopping the replication of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19. The ICMR said the research on its efficiency is the part of of WHO’s “soliditary trial”.
The Financial Times reported on Thursday, Gilead Sciences Inc’s experimental coronavirus drug failed its first random clinical trial, citing draft documents published accidentally by the World Health Organisation. The Chinese trial showed the antiviral remdesivir didn’t improve patients’ condition or reduce the pathogen’s presence within the bloodstream, the report said.
Researchers tested it on 237 patients, giving the drug to 158 and comparing the progress with the remaining 79. The drug also showed significant side effects in some, which meant 18 patients were began it.
As there are currently no approved treatments or preventive vaccines for COVID-19, and doctors are desperate for love or money which may alter the course of the disease that attacks the lungs and can pack up other organs in extremely severe cases.
The company is doing multiple trials and anticipated trial results from a study involving 400 patients hospitalized with severe cases of the illness are expected later this month.
An Open Letter from Gilead’s Chairman & CEO
Daniel O’Day – April 10, 2020
Earlier today, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published an analysis of the effects of our investigational medicine remdesivir on a small group of patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19.
These are patients who received treatment through the compassionate use program for remdesivir, which is for critically ill patients who are unable to take part in a clinical trial. The results, which cover 53 of the primary patients to possess been treated within the program, show that the bulk demonstrated clinical improvement after taking remdesivir. We recognize the limitations of these compassionate use data from a purely investigational perspective, while knowing they are of the greatest significance for the patients whose symptoms improved. These early data from 53 patients haven’t been generated during a clinical test and canopy only alittle portion of the critically ill patients who are treated with remdesivir.
Remdesivir is an investigational treatment and has not been approved to be used anywhere within the world. In the broader efforts to determine whether it is a safe and effective treatment, we have some way to go. Multiple clinical trials are underway across the world to build a complete picture of how remdesivir works in various contexts. These studies cover a range of patient populations across different demographics and with varying types of symptoms: moderate, severe where patients need oxygen support, and critical where medical ventilation is required. These patients all receive remdesivir through intravenous infusions in a hospital setting.
In studying remdesivir, the question isn’t just whether it’s safe and effective against COVID-19 but during which patients it shows activity, how long should they receive treatment and at what stage of their disease would treatment be most beneficial. Many answers are needed, which is why we’d like multiple sorts of studies involving many sorts of patients.
Some of these answers will start to emerge in the coming weeks as we receive the first data from the various clinical trials underway.
