Gilead Sciences Inc on Monday reported that its antiviral drug remdesivir provided a modest benefit in patients with moderate COVID-19 given a five-day course of the treatment, while those who received the medicine for 10 days in the study did not fare as well.
Remdesivir, which is administered intravenously in hospital, is the first drug to show improvement in COVID-19 patients in formal clinical trials, and new information about its efficacy is being closely watched around the world, as nations battle the pandemic.
The late stage study of nearly 600 patients evaluated the safety and efficacy of 5- and 10-day treatment with remdesivir in addition to standard care for those with moderate COVID-19 – the disease caused by the new coronavirus – compared with standard care alone.
At day 11, around 76% of the patients in the 5-day treatment group showed improvement in clinical status versus 66% for standard care alone, Gilead said.
Around 70% of the patients who received remdesivir for 10 days showed improvement, “trending toward but not reaching statistical significance,” the drugmaker said.
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