'Maharashtra to procure 10,000 vials of Remdesivir for treating COVID-19 patients': Tope

The Maharashtra government will procure 10,000 vials of anti-viral drug Remdesivir for treating COVID-19 patients, State Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Saturday. Remdesivir is the first drug that showed positive results in COVID-19 patients in formal clinical trials. India's Union Health Ministry had on Tuesday approved its emergency use to treat COVID-19 patients.

On Twitter, Rajesh Tope said that the anti-viral drug has generated promising results against other coronavirus-caused diseases like MERS and SARS based on evidence from animal and clinical studies in labs. He cited the World Health Organisation's positive take on the drug in COVID-19 treatment and said it is being made available for poor and needy patients.

Maharashtra currently has 42,224 active cases of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus. It has also reported 2,849 deaths.

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Possible treatment?

Remdesivir was granted emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration last month and has received approval by Japanese health regulators. In May, the WHO welcomed data from a US government-run clinical trial showing the drug appeared to be effective in reducing recovery times for COVID-19 patients. 

According to a statement from US-based National Institutes of Health (NIH) released earlier, the Coronavirus drug trial results suggested a survival benefit, with a mortality rate of 8% for the group receiving Remdesivir versus 11.6% for the placebo group. The mortality benefit of Remdesivir has not yet reached statistical significance.

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