What Is Remdesivir? The Anti-Viral Drug That Could Fight Coronavirus

In its initial stage, a clinical trial of the drug remdesivir showed that patients recovered about 30 per cent faster than those on a placebo.

Mumbai: Health workers wearing protective suits screen resident of Dharavi during a house-to-house health survey, after detection of some COVID-19 positive cases, during the nationwide lockdown, in Mumbai. PIC/PTI

Washington, April 30: In a breakthrough that can potentially help in treating Covid-19 patients, US scientists on Wednesday had praised the trial which showed patients responding to an antiviral drug remdesivir. In its initial stage, a clinical trial of the drug remdesivir showed that patients recovered about 30 per cent faster than those on a placebo. The drug has raised hopes for fighting the deadly virus which has claimed thousands of lives impacting the global economy as well. According to an agency report, a top infectious disease expert in the US government Dr Anthony Fauci said data “shows remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery”. However, in a span of few hours after the announcement by the US expert, the renowned medical journal The Lancet published findings from a study in China according to which remdesivir did not help in speeding up recovery or prevent deaths from Covid-19 compared with a placebo in hospital patients. What is Remdesivir? Remdesivir is an experimental antiviral manufactured by the US pharmaceutical company Gilead. It was considered as a potential cure for the Ebola virus and clinical trials were pushed after it showed positive results in the lab. However, the trials against the Ebola virus and another study, released last week by the WHO, found limited effects on Covid-19 patients in Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the disease. In the US, Remdesivir has been tested again with the outbreak of Covid-19. It is because the drug yielded positive results in fighting Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers-CoV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), which are also caused by coronaviruses. These studies are however only limited to animals so far. Is the drug being approved? No, the remdesivir has not been approved by health authorities around the world, and was mainly being used for Ebola. But it is now being used in clinical trials, and many countries are attempting to get access to the drug for use in their own Covid-19 studies. Of late the company Gilead has seen a spike in applications for the drug from countries where Covid-19 death and impact are profound. What do the studies say? The study hailed by Fauci is regarding the clinical trial by Gilead, sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US. According to the trial around 1,000 patients who were given the drug shown improvements in a span of an average 11 days compared to those who were not administered the drug. However, there was no statistically significant improvement in the survival rate between the two groups. Although the study from Wuhan, China didn’t show any statistically clinical benefit in health improvement or mortality of Covid-19 patients, and experts believe there can be a lot of variables in the set-up of the study, and different stages of initiation of treatment.  Some point out that the Chinese study is incomplete as doctors could not access new patients during the lockdown. The impact of the drug also depends on when and at what stage of the infection patients receive the drug. It is difficult to say who is benefitting from remdesivir. Experts also opine that it is not easy to base medical response on one promising study. (With inputs from agencies)