Remdesivir – the experimental drug that FDA plans to authorize use on emergency cases for coronavirus.
Remdesivir is an antiviral medication originally developed to treat Ebola virus. It is nucleotide analog, an adenosine analogue, which inserts into RNA chains destroying them.
Remdesivir was created and developed by Gilead Sciences, under the direction of scientist Tomás Cihlár, a biochemist specializing in virology.
On 17 March 2020, the drug was provisionally approved for use for COVID‑19 patients in a serious condition as a result of the outbreak in the Czech Republic.
FDA plans to authorize use on emergency cases for coronavirus.
Full Article – CTV News – Maggie Fox, Jamie Gumbrecht, Holly Yan and Betsy Klein
In a statement to CNN, the US Food and Administration department said that it is in talks with Gilead Sciences, the maker of Remdesivir about making it available to patients suffering from CORVID-019.
A government funded study found that patients who took remdesivir recovered faster that patients who did not.
“The data shows that remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said at the White House during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.
See Statement…
However in a clinical trial conducted in China over February-March 2020, remdesivir was not effective in reducing the time for improvement from COVID-19 infections or deaths, and caused various adverse effects in the remdesivir-treated participants, requiring the investigators to terminate the trial.
There is definitely need for further clinical trials before the drug can be touted as a potential cure for the coronavirus pandemic.