Gilead’s Remdesivir Shows Promise in COVID-19 Patients

Gilead’s antiviral drug remdesivir showed clinical improvement in two-thirds of COVID-19 patients in a study at Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Hospital.

Of the 53 patients whose data were analyzed, 36 (68 percent) showed improvement in oxygen-support class, including 17 of 30 patients on mechanical ventilation that were extubated. Twenty-five patients were discharged in total (47 percent), and seven patients died (13 percent), with mortality higher among patients receiving ventilation. There were 61 patients in the trial treated, but data on eight of them were tossed out either because of a lack of information about follow-ups or a dosing error.

In their follow-ups to the treatment, a total of 32 patients (60 percent) reported adverse events, with the most common being diarrhea, rash, increased hepatic enzymes, renal impairment and hypotension. Twelve patients (23 percent) experienced serious adverse events. The most common — multiple-organ-dysfunction syndrome, septic shock, acute kidney injury and hypotension — were seen in patients receiving invasive ventilation. — James Miessler