India’s COVID19 tally touches 1,25,101, US study finds hope in remdesivir
Even as India’s tally of Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID19) cases touched a new high of 6654, taking the total to 1,25,101, a new trial funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US has found anti viral remdesivir to be effective in treating the disease. So far 69597 people have recovered in India and 3720 have died.
“Preliminary results of this trial suggest that a 10-day course of remdesivir was superior to placebo in the treatment of hospitalized patients with Covid-19. This benefit was seen in the number of days to recovery and in recovery according to the ordinal scale score at day 15. Even though the trial was ongoing, the data and safety monitoring board made the recommendation to unblind the results to the trial team members from the NIAID, who subsequently decided to make the results public. Given the strength of the results about remdesivir, these findings were deemed to be of immediate importance for the care of patients still participating in the trial as well as for those outside the trial who might benefit from treatment with remdesivir,” the researchers reported in New England Journal Of Medicine.
Remdesivir, developed by Gilead Sciences Inc., is a broad-spectrum antiviral; shown promise against MERS and SARS
Remdesivir, developed by Gilead Sciences Inc., is a broad-spectrum antiviral originally meant to be used in the treatment of Ebola virus disease. It has shown promise as a drug against the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), both of which, like COVID are caused by coronaviruses. It is also a part of the SOLIDARITY trial of WHO under which, it is likely to be used also in Indian patients.
The authors in the NEJM study though expressed concern about the high mortality even with the use of Remdesivir. “These preliminary findings support the use of remdesivir for patients who are hospitalized with Covid-19 and require supplemental oxygen therapy. However, given high mortality despite the use of remdesivir, it is clear that treatment with an antiviral drug alone is not likely to be sufficient. Future strategies should evaluate antiviral agents in combination with other therapeutic approaches or combinations of antiviral agents to continue to improve patient outcomes in Covid-19,” they said.
