Remdesivir may work even better against COVID-19 than we thought
Remdesivir can not only speed recovery, but may cut the chance of dying of COVID-19, preliminary data released by the drug’s maker suggest. Among severely sick people, the antiviral drug reduced the risk of dying by 62 percent compared with standard care, the Foster City, Calif., drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc. reported at a virtual scientific conference on July 10. Hospitalized people taking remdesivir had a 7.4 percent death rate two weeks after treatment started, while those not taking the drug had a 12.5 percent mortality rate, the company reported. The new data, along with another newly reported study in mice and human cells, add to evidence that remdesivir is effective as a treatment for the coronavirus. In a previous clinical trial run by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the drug shortened hospital stays by about four days, and showed a trend toward lower death rates that was not statistically meaningful...