Covid-19 Patients Recovering Quickly after Getting Experimental Drug Remdesivir

COVID-19 patients with an experimental drug named remdesivir improved rapidly, with most returning home in days, STAT News announced on Thursday after they received a video of a trial conversation.

Patients taking part in a clinical trial of the drug all had severe respiratory problems and fatigue, but after less than a week of care they were able to leave the hospital, STAT cited the doctor who conducted the trial as saying.

"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.

Mullane did not respond instantly to a CNN request for clarification. The university has confirmed it would respond until the trial's official findings are available.

There is no approved therapy for the COVID-19, which can cause severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome in some patients. But the National Institutes of Health is organizing trials of several drugs and other treatments, among them remdesivir.

The drug, made by Gilead Sciences, was tested against Ebola with little success, but multiple studies in animals showed the drug could both prevent and treat coronaviruses related to COVID-19, including SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome).

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 the duration of therapy doesn't have to be 10 days," she was quoted as saying.

However, the study does not have what is regarded as a placebo group, and it would be impossible to predict whether the treatment actually makes people heal faster. Many people should not get the medication being checked with a monitoring arm, such that physicians can decide whether it is the substance that is actually influencing their disease.

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.

Gilead said it expected results from the trial by the end of the 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 needs 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.

Source: CNN