COVID-19 Patients Are Responding to Gilead’s Drug, Initial Data Suggests

Of all the drugs being tested worldwide to fight the deadly pathogen, many invest most hope in remdesivir, a coronavirus drug developed by Gilead Sciences. A media report appeared on Thursday, detailing encouraging preliminary data from the clinical trials of remdesivir at a hospital in Chicago. 

The data from an ongoing study at the University of Chicago Medicine, known through a video leaked to STAT, a healthcare publication, suggests there have been rapid recoveries, with vast majority of severe COVID-19 patients discharged in less than a week.

“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. Still, no other clinical data from the Gilead studies have been released to date, and excitement is high”, says STAT.

Last month, President Trump lauded the potential of remdesivir, saying it “seems to have a very good result.”

The New England Journal of Medicine published an analysis last week, saying that “two-thirds of a small group of severely ill COVID-19 patients saw their condition improve after treatment with the drug.” Calling the findings “hopeful”, the author emphasized the small number of the trial's participants and the absence of comparison to a control group, advising against hasty conclusions.

Gilead said in its statement: "the totality of the data need to be analyzed in order to draw any conclusions from the trial. What we can say at this stage is that we look forward to data from ongoing studies becoming available."

Gilead is awaiting more conclusive results from its study by the end of this month.

By Elene Dzebisashvili