New Delhi: Gilead Sciences Inc’s remdesivir had little or no effect on the length of hospital stay of COVID patients or their chances of survival, a clinical trial by the World Health Organization (WHO) has found, NDTV reported.
The antiviral medication, among the first to be used as a treatment for COVID-19, was one of the drugs recently used to treat U.S. President Donald Trump’s coronavirus infection, the report added.
WHO carried out a “Solidarity” trial to evaluate the effects of four potential drug regimens, including remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, anti-HIV drug combination lopinavir/ritonavir and interferon, in 11,266 adult patients across more than 30 countries.
According to the study, the regimens appeared to have little or no effect on 28-day mortality or the length of the in-hospital course among patients hospitalised with COVID-19. The results of the trial are yet to be reviewed and were uploaded on the preprint server medRxiv.
“The emerging (WHO) data appears inconsistent, with more robust evidence from multiple randomized, controlled studies published in peer-reviewed journals validating the clinical benefit of remdesivir,” Gilead told Reuters.
Dr Anupam Singh in Ghaziabad who has been treating COVID-19 patients pointed out that the message from the trial is that antivirals will work only at viremia stage (when the virus enters the bloodstream) and not at inflammatory stage or post 6-7 days of disease onset, The New Indian Express (TNIE) reported.
Most of the patients in India seek hospitalisation, only in the inflammatory stage.
He also told TNIE that while there is discordance among the US and Solidarity trials regarding remdesivir, there is a signal of benefit in all patients given remdesivir in low-risk stages such as those not on a ventilator or high flow oxygen.
“Remdesivir is likely to be useless once patient presents in high-risk stage,” he said.
