Significant positive effects: First results of study on Corona-drug Remdesivir

The Corona vaccine Remdesivir a lot has already been reported. Now revealed in a new U.S. study that the drug can shorten the duration of treatment of Covid-19-patients.

The Problem: The vaccine is approved for use in any country in the world so far.

Different studies, different opinions

The results of the study were very positive, said the immunologist and chief of the National Institute for infectious diseases (NIAID) of the United States, Anthony Fauci on Wednesday (local time).

In the specialist magazine ‘The Lancet’ featured a Chinese study comes to the conclusion that the condition of the patient does not improve with Remdesivir much. From the patient’s deficiency, this study was terminated prematurely.

According to Fauci, a consultant of the US President, Donald Trump, has Remdesivir shown a “significant positive effect in reducing the time-to-recovery”.

The clinical study with more than 1000 participants have been carried out with control groups, the data collection would be accompanied by independent experts.

The results still have to be independently verified and published. The evidence of a significantly shorter duration of illness were certainly promising.

Earlier initiation of therapy with Remdesivir increased chance of a cure

Patients with lung disease Covid-19, which were in hospitals Remdesivir, were recovered, according to Fauci after an average of eleven days, the patients of the control group after 15 days.

So, not all problems were solved, said Fauci during a meeting in the office of the President, Trump continued. Although the mortality was rate was somewhat low, this result is yet statistically significant.

In the Chinese study, 237 patients from ten hospitals in Wuhan were included, the origin of the pandemic. 158 Remdesivir, 79 received a no-effect placebo.

The researchers found no statistically significant influence on the duration of the disease or the mortality rate. In addition to the premature termination of the study, however, point to further weaknesses in the study: most of their patients were quite late in the disease course with Remdesivir been treated.

An earlier start of therapy improve the results of treatment may.

Evaluation of European experts

You should not drugs forgo high-quality research, the first treatment you try for success were promising, says the British medical statistician John Norrie of the University of Edinburgh in an accompanying commentary to the study.

“This is a particular challenge in the midst of a pandemic, there is a great temptation to lower the threshold for convincing evidence.”

The need to avoid ineffective and potentially dangerous measures, because this made more damage than use and clinical studies to be really effective means.

Germany welcomes the use of the vaccine

According to German experts, the results of the US study are to be sufficiently robust. There are enough patients had been studied; under therapy with Remdesivir they had been earlier discharged from the hospital, says Clemens Wendtner from Munich, clinic Schwabing.

“Thus, the essential endpoints of the study have been achieved, so that a rapid approval of the substance, in my view, little doubt should exist.”

Gerd Fätkenheuer of the University hospital of Cologne, Director of a clinical trial of Remdesivir (GS-5734) in patients in Germany, calculated on the basis of the positive results with an early admission.

What is Remdesivir exactly?

Remdesivir was originally developed against the Ebola virus and showed in laboratory trials, some efficacy against Sars-CoV-2. In cell try, it stopped the replication of the Virus, in animal studies, it was against other Coronavirus infections, including Sars and Mers. Remdesivir is not yet approved in any country of the world.

The food and drug administration (FDA) is currently in talks with the drug maker, Gilead, to make Remdesivir rapidly for patients in hospitals available, said Fauci.

A formal approval of the drug takes however much longer and would require further studies.

Trump said Wednesday evening (local time) on the question of whether the authority of an accelerated approval process for the funding requests, he wanted to go ahead as quickly as possible. “We wish us very fast approvals.”

The Biotech company, Gilead said in a press release, it was the “positive data” from the clinical trial, be aware of the communication but at the NIAID.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)

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