FDA approves remdesivir for emergency use in hospitalized coronavirus patients

U.S President Donald Trump announced that FDA has approved the experimental drug remdesivir for emergency use in hospitalized coronavirus patients.

“Im pleased to announce that Gilead now has an E wave from the FDA for remdesivir,’ Trump said.

According to preliminary results from a clinical trial released by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases it is found earlier that COVID-19 patients given remdesivir recovered faster than those taking a placebo.

According to STAT reports
the experimental drug speeded recovery by 4 days for patients hospitalized with advanced COVID-19—reducing it from 15 days to 11 days.

NIAID director Anthony Fauci hailed the results as a “very important proof of concept,” but cautioned it’s not a “knockout.” The difference in the mortality rate—8% for the remdesivir group vs. 11.6% for the placebo group—is not considered statistically significant. NIAID said more comprehensive data will be released soon.

It is also likely that the treatment will work best when given early. “What will be important is that we find people on the outpatient side,” said Nahid Bhadelia, a Boston Medical Center director as quoted by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Whereas some scientists also raised concerns about the preliminary release in the White House, ahead of scientific peer review, according to The New York Times.