What the Conflicting Results on Promising COVID-19 Drug Remdesivir Really Mean

Treating any infectious disease is a high wire act—doctors must balance the risks and benefits of therapies with the risks of the disease. And those stakes are even higher for a new disease that doesn’t yet have a playbook for physicians to follow. This summer, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the drug remdesivir emergency use authorization for treating any patients hospitalized with COVID-19. But on Oct.15, researchers working on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Solidarity trial published a preliminary report showing that nearly 3,000 people receiving the treatment were not more likely to survive infection with SARS-CoV-2 than those receiving standard of care. The study involved more than 11,000 people hospitalized with COVID-19 who were randomly assigned to receive one of four different therapies—remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir, or interferon—for their infection, or standard of care. After following the patients for about a month, the researchers found that none of the drugs reduced mortality or cut down on hospital stays. The remdesivir findings are in direct contrast to a report published Oct. 8 in the New England Journal of Medicine by a team led by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which found that remdesivir helped hospitalized COVID-19 patients to recover faster compared to placebo. While that study also did not find a statistically significant effect on mortality, ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news