Transcript
The FDA has approved the experimental drug Remdesivir to treat coronavirus patients in the hospital.
It could be a major breakthrough in the battle against the coronavirus.
The FDA is allowing healthcare providers to give the sickest Covid 19 patients the drug.
Gilead, the company that produces Remdesivir, said it will be donating more than 1 million vials of the drug with more on the way.
That’s enough doses to treat about 140 people.
However human clinical trials are still testing the drug’s safety and efficacy.
One such study is taking place in Seattle.
For 10 days the drug was given to patients intravenously.
Doctor say it was administered to the sickest Covid 19 patients and showed real promise by shortening the course of the illness and significantly decreasing the mortality rate.
And that was just Phase 1 of the trial.
Now every Covid 19 patient in the trial will now be treated with Remdesivir, not just the sickest ones.
In Phase 2 some patients will also get a companion drug called Baricitinib which is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.
Trials of the drug are happening across 68 states.
The results: patients recover 31% more quickly with Remdesivir.
That translates to four fewer days of suffering in the hospital.
However doctors stress with Remdesivir is not a cure for coronavirus.
Some of the patients treated with the drug still died.
Posted – 5.2.20