Study: Remdesivir improves recovery time in COVID-19 patients

A study published late last week in the New England Journal of Medicine found that hospitalized COVID-19 patients who received Gilead Sciences' antiviral drug Remdesivir recovered at least 4 days earlier than those who received a placebo. The drug showed “improved recovery time” based on data from 538 patients randomly assigned to receive remdesivir in Adaptive Covid-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT), sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in the US.  

According to the study published in the Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, the University of Minnesota, the COVID-19 patients administered with the drug had a median recovery time of 11 days. Patients were enrolled from Feb 21 to Apr 19 at 60 study sites and 13 subsites in the United States and Mexico (79.8%), Europe (15.3%), and Asia (4.9%), on the basis of the evolving epidemiology of the pandemic. Some were given either a placebo for 10 days or remdesivir intravenously as a 200-milligram (mg) dose followed by 100-mg maintenance doses for the next 9 days or until released from the hospital or death. 

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10-day course of remdesivir superior to placebo

As per the researchers, including those from the New York University, remdesivir was associated with a 47% speedier recovery, however, only 0.05% in patients needing intubation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. The authors noted that patients requiring supplemental oxygen-derived the most benefit from remdesivir, while the critical ICU patients needed more intense treatments. 

“Preliminary results of this trial suggest that a 10-day course of remdesivir was superior to placebo in the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19,” the scientists wrote in the published study. “The study began February 21, 2020, and enrolled 1,063 participants in 10 countries, with patients providing informed consent to participate,” they said. Further, they said that the final visits, data entry, monitoring, and data lock for the last of the 1,063 patients enrolled were awaited, after which, results will be concluded.  

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