A 1st: US study finds Gilead drug works against coronavirus

Associated Press
MARILYNN MARCHIONE
Associated PressApril 29, 2020
For the first time, a major study has found that an experimental drug works against the new coronavirus, and U.S. government officials said Wednesday that they would work to make it available to appropriate patients as quickly as possible.

In a study of 1,063 patients sick enough to be hospitalized, Gilead Sciences’s remdesivir shortened the time to recovery by 31% — 11 days on average versus 15 days for those just given usual care. The drug also might be reducing deaths, although that's not certain from results of the study so far.

“What it has proven is that a drug can block this virus,” the National Institutes of Health's Dr. Anthony Fauci said.

“This will be the standard of care,” and any other potential treatments will now have to be tested against or in combination with remdesivir, he said.

No drugs are currently approved for treating the coronavirus, which has killed about 226,000 people worldwide since it emerged late last year in China. An effective treatment could have a profound effect on pandemic's impact, especially because a vaccine is likely to be a year or more away.

Fauci revealed the results while speaking from the White House. Remdesivir was being evaluated in at least seven major studies, but this one, led by the NIH, was the strictest test. Independent monitors notified study leaders just days ago that the drug was working, so it was no longer ethical to continue with a placebo group.

The drug had “a clear-cut significant positive effect,” shortening the time to hospital discharge by four days, Fauci said.

By comparison, antiviral drugs for the flu shorten illness by about one day on average and only when started within a day or two of symptoms first appearing.

About 8% of those on the drug died versus 11.6% of the comparison group, but the difference is not large enough for scientists to say that remdesivir was the reason.

Remdesivir is among dozens of treatments being tested against the coronavirus but was the farthest along in study. It's given through an IV and blocks an enzyme the virus uses to copy its genetic material. In animal tests against SARS and MERS, diseases caused by similar coronaviruses, the drug helped prevent infection and reduced the severity of symptoms when given early enough in the course of illness.

“We are excited and optimistic” about the new results, said Vanderbilt University’s Dr. Mark Denison. His lab first tested remdesivir against other coronaviruses in 2013 and has done much research on it since, but was not involved in the NIH study.

“It’s active against every coronavirus that we’ve ever tested,” Denison said. “It was very hard for the virus to develop resistance to remdesivir. That means the drug would likely be effective over longer term use.”

The NIH study quickly enrolled its original goal of 440 patients and then was expanded to give more answers on questions such as which subgroups may or may not benefit, and other factors that may affect success, such as how early the drug was given. Fauci said full results would soon be published in a medical journal.

The study only tested the drug in patients sick enough to be hospitalized, so its safety and effectiveness for people less ill isn't known, Fauci said.

The study also will continue to enroll new patients. It was set up as an umbrella trial to test many treatments, although they now will have to be tested against remdesivir or with it, Fauci said.

Separately on Wednesday, California-based Gilead announced partial results from its own ongoing study of the drug in severely ill, hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The company said patients treated for five days “achieved similar improvement” in health as others treated for 10 days. However, that result is hard to interpret because there is no comparison group of people getting usual care, so it's impossible to know how much patients would have improved on their own.

Yet another study tested remdesivir in severely ill patients in China, which was stopped after only 237 of a planned 453 patients were enrolled. Partial results published Wednesday in the British medical journal Lancet suggest the drug did not speed recovery in that study, but it was too small to be definitive, Fauci and study leaders said.

Gilead also is testing remdesivir in a separate study of moderately ill coronavirus patients. No results have yet been announced from that study, which does have a comparison group.

The drug that WHO said was not going to work last week , they even released a paper that the drugs trial failed with completing testing , I dont know what that WHO is up to ..

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05p0R_xz7dk

we dey here together.. the end if covid-19 is near.

I saw 1,000,000 as a number in my dream during the early days of covid19. Initially I thought it will be the number of those that will be infected, but now I am starting to fear the number in terms of death from the virus.
May God’s mercy cover us and protect us from this virus.

D

They are deceiving themselves, they only succeeded in making a malaria drug

that is good. now Pfizer is speeding up its own results

unscripted:
The drug that WHO said was not going to work last week , they even released a paper that the drugs trial failed with completing testing , I dont know what that WHO is up to ..

It had some failed trial at first so its not WHO fault. Will you prefer they approve when results were not good. Also the whole world should not be waiting for only this one. More trials should go on for other drugs including locally made ones. Imagine if everybody was hoping on hydroxychloroquine and it failed.

This is really disappointing. They have finally pushed Tony Fauci to the edge.

WHO was right to withdraw the drug from their site. Even the Chinese where more trials with more patients were conducted decided the results was not conclusive and has no statistical edge over placebo.

So why would a respectable Fauci sign on to it?

United States was dying to get something out for political victory. More researchers will come out to condemn this rush for the drug.

Remdesivir is not a cure

Amhappy:


It had some failed trial at first so its not WHO fault. Will you prefer they approve when results were not good. Also the whole world should not be waiting for only this one. More trials should go on for other drugs including locally made ones. Imagine if everybody was hoping on hydroxychloroquine and it failed.

WHO didn't allow the trials to be concluded before they declared the drug ineffective. They even had to delete the article from their website after they were called out.

googi:

This is really disappointing. They have finally pushed Tony Fauci to the edge.

WHO was right to withdraw the drug from their site. Even the Chinese where more trials with more patients were conducted decided the results was not conclusive and has no statistical edge over placebo.

So why would a respectable Fauci sign on to it?

United States was dying to get something out for political victory. More researchers will come out to condemn this rush for the drug.

Remdesivir is not a cure

Bearer of bad news and liberal american wanna be. This is the drug go kill yourself

gasparpisciotta:
I saw 1,000,000 as a number in my dream during the early days of covid19. .

And you didn't see the cure...??

And Trump is silent?

manuelzz:


WHO didn't allow the trials to be concluded before they declared the drug ineffective. They even had to delete the article from their website after they were called out.

Ok I read report on the first trial and the drug was tipped to be a game changer then more people stopped responding and the story changed. Maybe that was too early to call. I was so disappointed. Thank God it will now work. A million doses has been produced already. Let them send some to us here.

Amhappy:

Ok I read report on the first trial and the drug was tipped to be a game changer then more people stopped responding and the story changed. Maybe that was too early to call. I was so disappointed. Thank God it will now work. A million doses has been produced already. Let them send some to us here.

Lol. If they offer to send some to Africa now, you people will say the drug has 666 encoded in it.

manuelzz:


Lol. If they offer to send some to Africa now, you people will say the drug has 666 encoded in it.

I'm sure we go grab am. Even the conspiracy theorists if they are sick will be the first to collect treatment. Leave Mata for Matthias

googi:

This is really disappointing. They have finally pushed Tony Fauci to the edge.

WHO was right to withdraw the drug from their site. Even the Chinese where more trials with more patients were conducted decided the results was not conclusive and has no statistical edge over placebo.

So why would a respectable Fauci sign on to it?

United States was dying to get something out for political victory. More researchers will come out to condemn this rush for the drug.

Remdesivir is not a cure

they are not pushing for the drug as a cure.it is been pushed as an intervention drug.it means it acts as a anti viral drug which reduces your covid 19 viral load.
Nigeria used this technique to treat the Italian index case.
Right now if it can pass it makes a whole lot of difference between lockdown,death and opening up your economy

In reality, you are right. But we can make the same argument for Hydroxychloroquine. As you may be aware, there is a Chicago politician that appeared with her President to thank him for saving her life on Hydroxychloroquine. She only got into trouble for being in a different political party.

Moreover, there is this difference between Medicine and Public Health. Drug can be patient specific. A drug that works for me may not work for you. This is why one must discuss a drug with their doctors. Or with a pharmacist.

Now, Fauci is now a Public Health doctor and he could have served the Public well by adhering to scientfic principle as WHO and the Chinese that still have the widest study on the drug did: caution!

Based on insignificant statistical difference with placebo!

Look, different experts in the field have come out with different cures, including simple ones as sipping hot water with lemon and covering yourself with hot "Agbo". These work for many people.

When we are desperate, we try anything. But anything that comes from that President carries weight including the right to kill oneself with disinfectant.

baralatie:

they are not pushing for the drug as a cure.it is been pushed as an intervention drug.it means it acts as a anti viral drug which reduces your covid 19 viral load.
Nigeria used this technique to treat the Italian index case.
Right now if it can pass it makes a whole lot of difference between lockdown,death and opening up your economy

googi:
In reality, you are right. But we can make the same argument for Hydroxychloroquine. As you may be aware, there is a Chicago politician that appeared with her President to thank him for saving her life on Hydroxychloroquine. She only got into trouble for being in a different political party.

Moreover, there is this difference between Medicine and Public Health. Drug can be patient specific. A drug that works for me may not work for you. This is why one must discuss a drug with their doctors. Or with a pharmacist.

Now, Fauci is now a Public Health doctor and he could have served the Public well by adhering to scientfic principle as WHO and the Chinese that still have the widest study on the drug did: caution!

Based on insignificant statistical difference with placebo!

Look, different experts in the field have come out with different cures, including simple ones as sipping hot water with lemon and covering yourself with hot "Agbo". These work for many people.

When we are desperate, we try anything. But anything that comes from that President carries weight including the right to kill oneself with disinfectant.

Right now the Chinese has shown to the scientific community that it can not be relied upon which is unfortunate. And because of this question mark it has lead the WHO into a reliability crisis.
So right now the only circle of scientific evidence to go with in this covid 19 is what the US comes up with.