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The study showed that patients who took the drug recovered on average 31% faster.
Remdesivir accelerates recovery time in patients with Covid-19, according to a major study conducted in the USA. UU., What makes it the first drug with proven benefits against the disease.
Here is what you need to know about the remedy:
What is remdesivir?
Remdesivir is a broad-spectrum experimental antiviral made by the American pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, which was first developed to treat Ebola, a viral hemorrhagic fever.
In 2016, this drug excited researchers in a study conducted on primates, and was used during a major survey in the Republic of the Congo, comparing it to three other drugs.
However, that study, however, was completed in 2019 because the drug failed to increase survival rates like the other two monoclonal antibodies, laboratory-designed immune system proteins.
In February, the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) announced that remdesivir would be retested, this time in an investigation into SARS-CoV-2, the pathogen that causes COVID-19, because it was promising. in animal trials against the SARS and MERS coronaviruses.
How effective is it?
Last Wednesday, NIAID announced the results of its study, which included 1,000 people and found that hospitalized patients with Covid-19 respiratory problems treated with the drug improved faster than cases solved with a placebo.
Patients who took the drug recovered an average of 31% faster.
“Although the results were clearly positive, from a statistically significant point of view, they were small,” Anthony Fauci, NIAID chief scientist, said Thursday.
In other words, it works, but it is not a miracle cure.
However, it can pave the way for better treatments, much like the first drugs developed to treat HIV in the 1980s, much less effective than those used today.
The results suggested that remdesivir could reduce mortality rates from 11.7% to 8.0%, but these data are considered less statistically reliable.
Why are there mixed results?
Findings from the US-led study. USA They were announced the same day that The Lancet published the results of a smaller-scale study with the same drug, in which it found no statistical benefit in remdesivir.
This study was conducted with just over 200 people in Wuhan, China, and was a randomized controlled study, which is considered the highest standard in evaluating a treatment.
This study, however, had to be stopped for not recruiting enough patients. Its size was approximately five times smaller than the study by the United States.
“The test numbers are too small to draw objective conclusions,” said Stephen Evans, a specialist in medical statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
When would it be available?
Remdesivir has already been administered to patients around the world, in clinical trials and also outside of them, in response to Gilead’s “compassionate use requests” for access to some emergencies.
In the United States, the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to issue an “emergency use authorization” soon, which would further increase its use, before formal approval.
“I was talking to the FDA commissioner last night, and everything is happening very fast,” said epidemiologist and adviser to US President Donald Trump.
“They haven’t made a final decision yet, they haven’t announced it, but I would say we will do it soon.”
Since the drug is complex to manufacture and is given by injection rather than by pills, there are questions about whether the supply will be limited to one phase.
In an open letter published last Wednesday, Daniel O’Day, president of Gilead, said the company has 1.5 million doses ready or nearly ready.
“We estimate that 140,000 treatments would be (available) based on a 10-day duration,” he said.
Another study showed that five days is as effective as using it in 10 days.
This means that “we can significantly increase the number of treatments available, which Gilead is committed to donating,” O’Day said.
How does it work?
Remdesivir belongs to a class of drugs that directly attack the virus.
It is called the “nucleotide analog,” which mimics adenosine, one of the four basic components of RNA and DNA.
“The virus is not very careful about what it incorporates,” said virologist Benjamin Neuman of Texas A&M University.
“Viruses generally try to be fast and change speed as a precaution,” he warned.
Remdesivir is silently incorporated into the virus genome instead of adenosine, causing a short-circuit in its reproduction process.
On Thursday, Gilead medical director Merdad Parsey said that in addition to patients who had symptoms for less time and seemed to respond better to the drug, the drug appears to have had some benefit among those in the most critical condition.
This is due to the fact that the virus triggers an abnormal immune reaction called a cytokine storm, responsible for damage to the lungs.
“By limiting viral replication, it reduces inflammation and the volume of people who develop lung injury, and stops respirator use more quickly,” Parsey explained.
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