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Donald Trump received two experimental drugs after testing positive for COVID-19.
White House physician Sean Conley said on Friday the president received a dose of an antibody drug that Regeneron was developing before he was taken to a military hospital where you started remdesivir therapy.
The president seemed optimistic when he landed at Walter Reed Military Hospital in Maryland on Friday night despite developing symptoms of fatigue and having trouble breathing, according to an adviser.
Sky News looks at what remdesivir and the drug Regeneron do, and how effective they have been in trials.
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What is remdesivir?
A drug that once offered hope in the treatment of Ebola, remdesivir is an antiviral drug that has not been approved anywhere in the world for any use.
It is injected into the vein in hopes of preventing SARS CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) from multiplying in the body, and some patients recover faster after using it.
Gilead Sciences Inc began research on remdesivir in 2009 as part of studies on hepatitis C and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a common and highly contagious respiratory virus that most children contract before their second birthday.
After scientists in China determined that the new pneumonia-like illness was caused by a coronavirus, Gilead provided remdesivir to China to test the drug against the virus.
Remdesivir is believed to interfere with the mechanism certain viruses use to make copies of themselves, but scientists are still determining how it occurs.
Since January there have been several clinical trials and laboratory studies, with some promising signs.
However, a report published in the Lancet medical journal on October 3 looking at several studies has found that remdesivir “did not appear to affect the rates of SARS CoV-2 viral load decline and mortality.”
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He said early use of remdesivir “substantially lowered” viral loads, but this effect was “completely lost” when the drug was administered just eight hours after infection.
The report concluded that remdesivir “might require initiation before the peak of viral replication,” but that is “not feasible” in humans, as they show symptoms after the virus multiplies.
There is no clinical reason why remdesivir cannot be given before someone shows symptoms, he added.
What is Regeneron’s experimental treatment?
Drug maker Regeneron provided a dose of its experimental antibody treatment to the president on Friday before the decision was made to bring it to Walter Reed.
Even in large-scale clinical trials, the new “cocktail” of antiviral antibodies works by binding to a protein on the surface of the virus.
This is intended to prevent the virus from attaching itself to cells and replicating itself, while allowing the immune system to attack the virus.
Trump received a single 8-g dose, which should “last quite a long time,” Regeneron CEO Dr. Leonard Schleifer told CNN.
Last weekend, the drug began to be used in “about three hospitals in the north” of England as part of the Oxford University National Recovery Trial, Professor Peter Horby told the BBC.
The emerging infectious disease specialist at the University of Oxford said the drug is “very promising” and “very powerful.”
This class of drugs is “fairly safe and well understood,” so he’s “confident,” he said.
He added that it has so far been administered to some four to five hundred patients and there have been no “worrisome safety signs”, with the plan to roll it out in another 30 to 40 UK hospitals next week.
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Professor Horby said that a single dose of the treatment provides “prolonged protection” for “one month to six weeks.”
Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency room physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said he wouldn’t give it to his patients because he couldn’t say what the benefit or the risks were.
He added that giving the president an unproven deal “sends a message that they are fighting.”
