Remdesivir will be available to treat coronavirus patients this week, company says
A new drug will be available to treat coronavirus patients likely early this week, a company says.
Daniel O’Day, chairman and chief executive officer at Gilead Sciences, said Sunday on CBS’ “Face The Nation” that the company intends to get its drug remdesivir, an antiviral drug that has shown promise as a COVID-19 treatment, to coronavirus patients who need it early this week.
This comes after the company released results of its ongoing drug trials last week.
The recent trials examined whether a 5-day course of remdesivir would work as well as the 10-day treatment course used in other ongoing studies of the drug, Gilead said in a press release.
The trials showed “that patients who received a shorter, 5-day course of remdesivir experienced similar clinical improvement as patients who received a 10-day treatment course,” said Aruna Subramanian, one of the lead investigators of the study.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease also released the results of a study last week, which found patients treated with the drug has a 31% faster recovery time than those who received a placebo.
The median time for recovery for patients who received the drug was four days faster than those who did not, the release says.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday granted emergency use authorization of the drug for patients hospitalized with COVID-19, McClatchy News reported.
Such authorization allows “unapproved medical products” to be used in an emergency against life-threatening diseases or conditions, according to the FDA.
O’Day said on “Face The Nation” that Gilead has donated its entire supply of the drug to the U.S. government, which will determine which cities are “most vulnerable and where the patients are that need this medicine.”
He said the government will decide where to send the drug based on factors such as ICU beds and “where the course of the epidemic is” and will start shipping tens of thousands of treatment courses out this week. He said it will adjust as the pandemic evolves.
This story was originally published May 3, 2020 at 5:41 PM with the headline "Remdesivir will be available to treat coronavirus patients this week, company says."
