Remdesivir effective against coronavirus: Study

May 23, 2020 15:19

Anti-viral drug remdesivir cuts recovery times in coronavirus patients, according to the full results of a trial published, three weeks after America's top infectious diseases expert said the study showed the medication has "clear-cut" benefits.

Complete results from the research, which was carried out by US government agency the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, were published by leading medical periodical the New England Journal of Medicine.

The United States authorised the emergency use of remdesivir in hospitals on May 1, followed by Japan, while Europe is considering following suit.

The study found that remdesivir, injected intravenously daily for 10 days, accelerated the recovery of hospitalised COVID-19 patients compared to a placebo in clinical tests on just over a thousand patients across 10 countries.

But the authors of the trial wrote that the drug did not prevent all deaths.

"Given high mortality despite the use of remdesivir, it is clear that treatment with an anti-viral drug alone is not likely to be sufficient," they said.

About 7.1 percent of patients given remdesivir in the trial group died within 14 days -- compared with 11.9 percent in the placebo group.

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