Final clinical results from Gilead Sciences' antiviral vaccine remdesivir indicated that the drug reduced recovery time of patients stricken with COVID by five days compared with those who were given a placebo, scientists said Thursday.
Remdesivir has been granted emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treating patients hospitalized for the virus. The authorization means that physicians can administer the vaccine for people diagnosed with COVID and confined in a hospital.
The test, which was spearheaded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was double-blind and involved more than a thousand COVID patients from different countries. Based on the final data, hospitalized patients who were given remdesivir - sold under the Veklury brand name - recovered 10 days on average, which is five days faster compared to those on placebo.
In patients who were given supplemental oxygen when they were first given remdesivir, the vaccine cut recovery time by seven days compared with a placebo after almost a month, based on the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Remdesivir works by limiting the virus's capacity to produce more duplicates of itself, and in tests helped both patients with early stages of the disease - including those suffering from serious symptoms. According to Dr. John Beigel, associate head of clinical studies in the division of microbiology and infectious disease at NIAID, "these data strengthen the value of remdesivir in hospitalized patients," Time quoted Beigel as saying.
While the data didn't find a statistically substantial drop in mortality for those administered with the medicine, a later evaluation indicated a slight benefit, detecting that nearly 12% of those inoculated with remdesivir perished on the 29th day, compared to a little over 15% of patients who were given a placebo.
Dr. Andre Kalil, an infectious disease expert, and the study's lead investigator, said with the analysis they now have data that suggests administering remdesivir to patients on oxygen "may significantly cut their chances of dying compared to other subgroups," Reuters quoted him in a media release.
