Remdesivir, a potentially antiviral medicine against coronaviruses, particularly COVID-19, is showing promising results in its initial stages. Through daily infusions of remdesivir, out of the 113 severe cases, the majority of them were sent back home with only two recorded deaths. As reported by STAT News, nearly all patients were discharged in less than a week after taking part in a clinical trial that’s headed by Gilead Sciences.
Slawomir Michalak, a 57-year-old father, is one of the patients that was treated with the medicine. After reporting to the University of Chicago Medicine hospital on April 3rd with high fever, severe back pain, and shortness of breath, he was given supplemental oxygen and agreed to participate in Gilead’s severe COVID-19 clinical trial. After the first infusion on April 4th, Michalak’s high fever dropped “almost immediately” and he started to feel better. After the second infusion, he was being weaned off oxygen. After two more infusions, he has recovered enough to be discharged from the hospital on April 7th.
The University of Chicago Medicine is only one of the clinical trial sites all over the world that studies severe COVID-19 cases out of the 152 sites with 2,400 participants. Moderate-level cases, on the other end, have 169 centers with 1,600 participants. As mentioned, initial results are promising given the clinical trial investigation is expected to last up to 10 days. However, these results are considered partial and not enough to draw “any conclusions at this point” since the gathered data is “premature and scientifically unsound,” as shared in a statement by Kathleen Mullane from the University of Chicago. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes remdesivir as the only drug right now that they think may have real efficacy. But that doesn’t mean that it’s ready for public testing.
The primary goal of the experimentation is to provide a “statistical comparison of patient improvement between the two treatment arms“. With no other data to compare with, the results are said to be more challenging to interpret. In China, two studies had been suspended partway due to the lack of willing patients as skepticism was the primary reason upon presenting to them the clinical program.
Nevertheless, the special program is already a good start. For all we know, we could be one step closer to ending this coronavirus pandemic.
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