The novel coronavirus outbreak, which led to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, has affected over five million people and taken the lives of over 300 thousand worldwide. But unfortunately, researchers have not been able to find treatment for this highly contagious disease yet.

However, several vaccines and drugs for the same are at a different levels of development and trial. Recently, Gilead Sciences, Inc., the American biopharmaceutical company, has announced that its investigational antiviral remdesivir can speed up the recovery of COVID-19 patients.  

According to sources, the outcomes of the company’s Phase 3 SIMPLE trial in hospitalized patients with modest COVID-19 pneumonia suggests that patients who received 5-day remdesivir treatment were 65% more likely to have clinical improvement at Day 11. This open-label clinical trial assessed 5-day and 10-day treatment courses of the remdesivir plus standard of care against the standard of care alone. 

Sources cite that the outcomes of a clinical trial with a 10-day treatment course of remdesivir versus standard of care also showed positive results but did not reach statistical significance. Remdesivir was well-tolerated in both the 5-day and 10-day treatment groups. The common adverse events occurring in over 5 percent of patients in both treatment groups were diarrhea, nausea, and headache.

The company is planning to submit the complete data for publication in a peer-reviewed journal in the forthcoming time.

Speaking on which, Francisco Marty, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School said that these clinical outcomes offer supplementary encouraging data for remdesivir, indicating that a 5-day treatment course in early stages of COVID-19 can considerably improve the clinical outcomes for these patients.

Remdesivir is presently approved in Japan as a treatment for patients with COVID-19. However, outside of Japan, remdesivir is an unapproved drug. The U.S FDA ( Food and Drug Administration) has approved remdesivir for emergency use for treating hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19.

Source Credit- https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200601005310/en/Gilead-Announces-Results-Phase-3-Trial-Remdesivir