There is a new study showing how infections with the new coronavirus can benefit from treatment with Remdesivir, an anti-viral drug produced by Gilead Sciences. Two-thirds of the critically ill patients who had been given this medicine, which was originally developed for Ebola, but was never approved, improved. At the end of March, Infarmed had already authorized three requests to use this medicine.
In this study, published in the scientific journal New England Journal of Medicine, the reaction of 53 patients to this medicine was studied – all of them were people who had to be ventilated as a result of the infection, in the USA, Europe and Canada. This is a small study, which did not have a control group to compare the results, but it was found that this therapy can be promising in many cases.
Over 18 days, 68% of patients showed improvement, with 17 of the 30 patients who were having invasive mechanical ventilation able to improve to the point that they no longer needed this breathing assistance. About half of the patients ended up being discharged, but 13% died even after taking this medicine on an experimental basis.
“We cannot draw definitive conclusions from these data, but it gives some hope to the observations that were made in this group of hospitalized patients who took Remdesivir,” commented the study’s lead author, Jonathan Grein, in Los Angeles, in a statement issued by the pharmacist that produces the drug, the Californian Gilead.
However, not all experts are convinced. “The data in this study is almost impossible to interpret,” Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacobiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, told Bloomberg.
“There is some evidence that points to an efficacy, but we just don’t know what would have happened to these patients had they not taken the drug,” added the expert.
Remdesivir was administered to 14 people who were on board the Diamond Princess cruise in Japan. Many of the patients undergoing treatment were in critical condition and eventually recovered.
News from the end of March indicated that Infarmed had already authorized three orders in Portugal to use Remdesivir. It is one of the drugs indicated by the Directorate-General for Health to treat cases of infection.
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