– An important step forward – VG

The study was published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers released a draft of the report before the summer, but it has now been completed.

1064 patients with coronary disease with symptoms of lower respiratory tract infection participated in the study. About half were treated with Remdesivir, the rest received a placebo drug.

The final report concludes that the antiviral drug Remdesivir reduces recovery time, that is, the time from the first onset of symptoms to recovery, and to some extent reduces mortality.

– This are good news. Although we have long received reports that Remdesivir can shorten the course of the disease in covid-19, this is the first study to show that it can also have an impact on survival, says assistant director of health Espen Rostrup Nakstad to VG.

More specifically, the study shows that:

• Remdesivir can shorten the course of the disease from 15 to 10 days in hospitalized patients.
• The effect is greatest when the drug is given early.
• 29 days after admission, 11.4 percent of patients who received Remdesivir had lost their lives, while mortality among those who did not receive the drug was 15.2 percent.

– Although this difference is not very large and is not statistically significant, it is an important step forward because there are no other effective drugs developed directly against the coronavirus, says Nakstad.

Chief physician: skeptical of the effect on mortality

Jon Henrik Laake is chief physician at Rikshospitalet and a specialist in anesthesiology and intensive care medicine. He is one of the Norwegian doctors with the most experience in patients with covid-19.

Although Remdesivir appears to shorten the recovery time for patients who are not seriously ill, it is clear to the superior that the effect on mortality is not statistically significant in this study.

– This means that we cannot place any particular emphasis on these results. It will surely be used in marketing, which seemed to make a difference, but statistically it is not sustainable, he emphasizes.

Remdesivir is approved for use in Norway, but it is only available to patients participating in the WHO solidarity study. Laake notes that a treatment costs $ 3,000 on the open market in the United States and believes the effect is modest compared to the problem we face.

The superior believes that we must wait for the results of the WHO study before drawing final conclusions.

– Too much focus on drugs

– There is too much focus on drugs in these crown times and too little focus on things that are much more effective, says Laake and elaborates:

• If we all behave sensibly, the burden of disease will not be as great
• The vast majority recover without any treatment.
• Those admitted to the hospital need good care from professional nurses, doctors, and physical therapists.

– There is a tendency to under-communicate the importance of non-pharmacological treatment. For severely ill corona patients, I think such measures are more important than medications, Laake says.

Norway participates in the joint purchase of Remdesivir

On Thursday, it was announced that the European Commission signed a joint acquisition agreement with the pharmaceutical company Gilead for the purchase of 500,000 Remdesivir treatments for use in patients with covid-19.

Norway is participating in a joint acquisition, but it is not clear how many doses we will receive. It will depend on the amount of hospital admissions with COVID-19 patients, so it is too early to say a final figure, Secretary of State Anne Grethe Erlandsen from the Ministry of Health and Care Services told VG on Thursday.

The Remdesivir allocation will be distributed to participating countries on a monthly basis.