On Friday, President Donald Trump and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced emergency approval of the experimental antiviral drug remdesivir for the treatment of coronavirus, especially in patients who are hospitalized.
Manufactured by Gilead Sciences, remdesivir is administered intravenously once a day for 10 days. A study has found that the drug helps patients to recover quickly from the illness.
Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day said the company is planning to donate more than 1 million vials of remdesivir, and it will work with the government to distribute the drug.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) referred to an international study of 1,100 people earlier this week, supporting the findings and announcing that the drug helped patients recover faster. The drug also found to reduce the mortality rate among COVID-19 patients.
“The data shows that remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery,” Dr. Fauci said on Wednesday.
Although the study still requires peer review, some experts are optimistic.
Dr. Fauci said, “This is really quite important for a number of reasons. Although a 31% improvement doesn’t seem like a knockout, 100%, it is a very important proof of concept. What it has proven is that a drug can beat this virus.”
The NIAID head cited the medical community’s response to the HIV/AIDS crisis to make his point. He said while the first HIV drug AZT showed “modest” effects in the first human trials, subsequent studies created a much more powerful drug.
Echoing Dr. Fauci’s comparison to the AIDS crisis, O’Day said although “we’re still early days on the coronavirus, this is the first step today.”
The FDA noted that remdesivir has not undergone a full review. Instead, it was issued emergency approval because there are no alternatives and scientific evidence shows “it is reasonable to believe that this product meets certain criteria for safety,” according to the FDA.
Gilead is not the only company that has been rushing to find a coronavirus cure. There are several other companies working extensively on finding a cure.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said in a tweet that the agency was working “around the clock” to speed up efforts to find suitable treatment methods.
Dr. Hahn tweeted, “After reviewing EUA criteria & the science, we determined it reasonable that remdesivir may be effective in treating #COVID19, & that, given a lack of adequate, approved, or available alternative treatments, the known & potential benefits outweigh the known & potential risks.”
He said the FDA has been working “around the clock” to speed up efforts to find a suitable drug.
Companies are also trying to find a vaccine to prevent COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. A potential vaccine is not expected to become available at least until next year. In the United States, the virus has affected more than 1,131,400 and killed over 65,700 people so far.
