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The highly touted drug Remdesivir also does not reduce the death rate, according to new data. The manufacturing company immediately questioned the study.
Help or not? Hope for an effect of Remdesivir (here a vial of the drug) against Covid-19 is being severely clouded by a new study.
The study authors’ conclusion is clear: Remdesivir, the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, the HIV drug lopinavir, and the immunostimulator interferon do not reduce the mortality rate in patients with Covid-19, shorten hospital stay, or delay initiation. ventilation. So many hopes are exploding at once. The results of the so-called Solidarity Study were presented in a publication that has not yet been scientifically evaluated.
The Solidarity Study, launched in March under the leadership of the World Health Organization (WHO), was carried out in 405 hospitals in 30 countries. Switzerland also participated in the Lausanne University Hospital. More than 11,000 Covid-19 patients who had been admitted to hospital due to their illness were evaluated. 11 percent of the participants died from the disease.
Test substances developed against other pathogens
Subjects received the usual standard therapy at the respective location or one of four test devices. These four substances were used right at the beginning of the pandemic because, logically, specific drugs against the new pathogen Sars-CoV-2 were not available and therefore therapies with substances directed against other pathogens had to be tested.
It was already clear in the summer that hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir cannot fight the new coronavirus effectively. Therefore, according to the WHO, these therapy attempts were already suspended in June and July. Interferon, which fuels the body’s immune response to viruses, had long been expected. Previous small studies have suggested that the substance helps when given very early in infection.
The biggest bet has been on Remdesivir for weeks. The American company Gilead originally developed the drug against the Ebola virus, but it did not work against it. When Sars-CoV-2 appeared, the failed drug was taken out of the refrigerator. It got a big boost when preliminary data from April and a study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that remdesivir shortened the recovery of Covid-19 patients by an average of five days compared to a placebo.
Remdesivir received emergency approval in the US in May, and recently President Donald Trump was also treated with it. At the beginning of October, the EU Commission had signed a contract with Gilead worth one billion euros. “Remdesivir is not a dead duck like hydroxychloroquine, but neither is it a bearer of hope,” said Eric Topol of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in relation to the trade journal “Science” of the new data.
Gilead harshly criticized the results of the Solidarity study on Friday. The study design chosen there does not allow for any scientifically sound answers. The study does not meet all the necessary criteria for a meaningful, high-quality clinical study. For example, there is no placebo group. Also, the data has yet to be scientifically verified.
The low effectiveness has not been statistically confirmed.
The Solidarity authors write that remdesivir treatment showed a minor positive effect in their study. But the statistically calculated deviation interval is so large that Remdesivir cannot be said to demonstrably reduce the mortality or hospitalization rate.
The effect of Remdesivir as a therapy against Covid-19 will remain controversial for the time being. It is conceivable that administration early in the course of infection has a positive effect. Or that only some of the patients benefit. However, it is currently unclear what criteria characterize this subgroup.
Only subsequent studies with large groups of patients can answer these questions. Therefore, according to the WHO, the Solidarity Study will continue. Also, other drugs are now being tested in more detail there. The currently most promising means of combating Covid-19 remains dexamethasone, a cortisone preparation, until further notice.
