COVID-19 Patients Showing Promising Recovery After Getting Treated With An Experimental Anti-Viral Drug

By Samantha in Health and Fitness On 19th April 2020
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It has been more than a month, since WHO declared COVID-19 as a pandemic and considered it as a global emergency. Ever since then, the world is in complete chaos. With a dramatic surge in deaths due to this virus and countries trying their best to keep the numbers in control, there is only panic and misery all around. Due to this situation, the pharmaceutical companies, research institutes, and labs are working day and night to find a cure for this deadly virus.

Perhaps, this news will serve as a ray of hope for many struggling out there.

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After obtaining a video of a conversation about the trial, according to STAT News, the COVID-19 affected patients are showing a remarkable recovery with the experimental anti-viral drug remdesivir.

The patients receiving the drug in clinical trials, all showed symptoms of severe respiratory distress and fever but were able to leave the hospital within a week, STAT quoted the doctor leading the trial as saying.

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“The best news is that most of our patients have already been discharged, which is great. We’ve only had two patients perish,” Dr. Kathleen Mullane, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Chicago who is leading the clinical trial, said in the video.

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The university has not made any official comment yet and says that it will make an official announcement once they receive the final results of the trials.

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For now, there is no official treatment for coronavirus but the National Institutes of Health is organizing trials of several drugs and other treatments, among them remdesivir.

Remdesivir was first prepared by Gilead Sciences to treat Ebola but faced little success in it. However, this drug is showing promising results for both prevention and treatment of coronaviruses related to COVID-19, including SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome).

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Back in February, the World Health Organization said remdesivir showed potential against COVID-19.

STAT said it obtained and viewed a copy of the video discussion Mullane had last week with colleagues about the trial.

“Most of our patients are severe and most of them are leaving at six days, so that tells us duration of therapy doesn’t have to be 10 days,” she was quoted as saying.

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However the trial does not include the control group, so the Doctors at this point cannot really say whether it is the drug that is affecting the patients' conditions positively. Trials of the drug are ongoing at dozens of other clinical centers, as well. Gilead is sponsoring tests of the drug in 2,400 patients with severe COVID-19 symptoms in 152 trial sites around the world. It’s also testing the drug in 1,600 patients with moderate symptoms at 169 hospitals and clinics around the world.

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Gilead says they are expecting the result of the trial by the end of this month. “We understand the urgent need for a COVID-19 treatment and the resulting interest in data on our investigational antiviral drug remdesivir,” the company said in a statement to CNN. But it said a few stories about patients are just that — stories.

“The totality of the data need to be analyzed in order to draw any conclusions from the trial. Anecdotal reports, while encouraging, do not provide the statistical power necessary to determine the safety and efficacy profile of remdesivir as a treatment for Covid-19,” Gilead said.

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