NIH: Status of Remdesivir an Anti-Viral for COVID-19

Gemini

Gemini

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Gemini said:
NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins' latest blog reviews the status and preliminary results for Remdesivir, an anti-viral drug being tested worldwide in COVID-19 clinical trials
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Summary:

1. NIH/NIAID sponsored randomized double-blind placebo controlled remdesivir trial of 805 COVID-19 patients at 67 sites worldwide -- results due in a matter of weeks.

2. Gilead compassionate use worldwide trial of 1800 patients, preliminary results on 53 patients: men over 60 with preexisting conditions (i.e., hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, asthma) and advanced complications -- 2/3 of 53 patients improved.
 
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Rebeccare

Rebeccare

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Thank you for sharing! I was reading this article on the topic of remdesivir earlier today: https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/16...uggests-patients-are-responding-to-treatment/

A few excerpts:
AChicago hospital treating severe Covid-19 patients with Gilead Sciences’ antiviral medicine remdesivir in a closely watched clinical trial is seeing rapid recoveries in fever and respiratory symptoms, with nearly all patients discharged in less than a week, STAT has learned.
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The University of Chicago Medicine recruited 125 people with Covid-19 into Gilead’s two Phase 3 clinical trials. Of those people, 113 had severe disease. All the patients have been treated with daily infusions of remdesivir.

“The best news is that most of our patients have already been discharged, which is great. We’ve only had two patients perish,” said Kathleen Mullane, the University of Chicago infectious disease specialist overseeing the remdesivir studies for the hospital.

Her comments were made this week during a video discussion about the trial results with other University of Chicago faculty members. The discussion was recorded and STAT obtained a copy of the video.

The outcomes offer only a snapshot of remdesivir’s effectiveness. The same trials are being run concurrently at other institutions, and it’s impossible to determine the full study results with any certainty.
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Mullane, while encouraged by the University of Chicago data, made clear her own hesitancy about drawing too many conclusions.

“It’s always hard,” she said, because the severe trial doesn’t include a placebo group for comparison. “But certainly when we start [the] drug, we see fever curves falling,” she said. “Fever is now not a requirement for people to go on trial, we do see when patients do come in with high fevers, they do [reduce] quite quickly. We have seen people come off ventilators a day after starting therapy. So, in that realm, overall our patients have done very well.”

She added: “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. We have very few that went out to 10 days, maybe three,” she said.
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W

Wally

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@Gemini - Thanks for posting this info. I will add a post on the long antiviral thread with a link to this thread, so the article will get noted there as well.
 
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