Remdesivir, a drug used to treat Ebola, may also be useful in treating COVID-19, with the drug meeting its “primary endpoint” in official testing, the biotech giant Gilead Sciences announced Wednesday.
On Thursday, the U.S. US Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the economy shrank by 4.8% in the last quarter, but the Dow rose more than 600 points, partly on the news about remdesivir.
The antiviral drug has been in tests with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ (NIAID). The trial included 397 patients, evaluating the safety and efficacy of five-day and 10-day dosing regimens of remdesivir in hospitalized patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19.
“Gilead Sciences. Inc. is aware of positive data emerging from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ (NIAID) study of the investigational antiviral remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19. We understand that the trial has met its primary endpoint and that NIAID will provide detailed information at an upcoming briefing,” the company said in a statement.
Reaching the primary endpoint would mean that patients who took remdesivir recovered more quickly than those taking a placebo, Business Insider reported.
“Certainly it’s a very positive event,” President Trump said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, an immunologist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who serves on the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said, “This is very optimistic, the mortality rate trended towards being better in the sense of less deaths in the REM designate group. 8% versus 11% in the placebo group. So bottom line. You’re going to hear more details about this this will be submitted to a peer reviewed journal, and will be peer reviewed appropriately.”
The company said there is still more work to be done.
“Remdesivir is not yet licensed or approved anywhere globally and has not yet been demonstrated to be safe or effective for the treatment of COVID-19. Gilead will share additional remdesivir data from the company’s open-label Phase 3 SIMPLE trial in patients with severe COVID-19 disease shortly. This study will provide information on whether a shorter, 5-day duration of therapy may have similar efficacy and safety as the 10-day treatment course evaluated in the NIAID trial and other ongoing trials. Gilead expects data at the end of May from the second SIMPLE study evaluating the 5- and 10-day dosing durations of remdesivir in patients with moderate COVID-19 disease,” Gilead said.
Gilead did not provide any more detail, but said an upcoming briefing by NIAID would offer “detailed information” about the results.
The company also announced results of its own study, which showed that 62% of patients treated early with remdesivir were discharged from the hospital, compared with 49% of patients who were treated late.
Shares for Gilead surged by more than 13% earlier this month after a report by STAT detailed the extremely promising results out of a Chicago hospital that is part of a larger clinical study on the effectiveness of the new potential treatment.
STAT detailed the early clinical trial results of Gilead Sciences’ antiviral medicine Remdesivir in a test involving 125 people at a Chicago hospital. Nearly all of the patients who were treated with the antiviral drug experienced “rapid recoveries in fever and respiratory symptoms” and were “discharged in less than a week.” STAT reported:
Remdesivir was one of the first medicines identified as having the potential to impact SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, in lab tests. The entire world has been waiting for results from Gilead’s clinical trials, and positive results would likely lead to fast approvals by the Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies. If safe and effective, it could become the first approved treatment against the disease.
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 Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a subscriber.