Severe COVID-19 patients are now recovering faster and are being discharged less than a week after a hospital in Chicago treated its patient with Remdesivir. Anti-viral drug Remdesivir, formerly developed in the treatment of Ebola is been reported to be the only direct antiviral medicine that's being studied in the context of treatment for COVID-19. Hennepin Healthcare's infectious disease director, Jason Baker has revealed that the medicine has been ascertained as what directly attacks the virus.
Medical Experts at the Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute hope to enrol patients with cases of COVID-19 before the end of the trial by early May. Baker noted that it is up to the Food and Drug Administration to decide whether to approve the drug in the fight against COVID-19.
Gilead Sciences Inc. the originator of Remdesivir, has given it to more than 1,700 patients (about 113 severe cases) and of which conditions improved and some have been discharged with just two fatalities. The company now expects results from its Phase 3 study in patients with severe COVID-19 at the end of this month, and additional data from other studies to become available in May.
The University of Chicago is one of 152 locations participating in Gilead’s trial involving severe COVID-19 patients, which is “single-arm” meaning it does not measure the drug against a matched group of patients treated with a placebo. A trial of patients with moderate COVID-19 symptoms has 169 study locations.
The U.S National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease in February began an 800-patient trial that randomly assigns patients to treatment with either Remdesivir or a placebo. Those results are not expected until after Gilead’s trial reads out.
Aside from Remdesivir, Avigan an antiviral drug used in flu outbreaks and has been deployed to treat Ebola is also being tested (300 clinical trials) for coronavirus patients and could be a potential coronavirus treatment.
However, there are currently no approved treatments for COVID-19.
