Covid-19 patients who are getting an experimental drug called
remdesivir have been recovering quickly, with most going home in days, STAT News reported Thursday after it obtained a video of a conversation about the trial.
The
patients taking part in a clinical trial of the drug have all had
severe respiratory symptoms and fever, but were able to leave the
hospital after less than a week of treatment , STAT quoted the doctor leading the trial as saying.
"The best news is that most of our patients have already been discharged, which is great. We've only had two patients perish,"
Dr. Kathleen Mullane, an infectious disease specialist at the
University of Chicago who is leading the clinical trial, said in the
video.
Trials of the drug are ongoing at dozens of other
clinical centers, as well. Gilead is sponsoring tests of the drug in
2,400 patients with severe Covid-19 symptoms in 152 trial sites around
the world. It's also testing the drug in 1,600 patients with moderate
symptoms at 169 hospitals and clinics around the world. Gilead said it
expected results from the trial by the end of the month "We
understand the urgent need for a COVID-19 treatment and the resulting
interest in data on our investigational antiviral drug remdesivir," the company said in a statement to CNN. But it said a few stories about patients are just that -- stories
"The
totality of the data need to be analyzed in order to draw any
conclusions from the trial. Anecdotal reports, while encouraging, do not
provide the statistical power necessary to determine the safety and
efficacy profile of remdesivir as a treatment for Covid-19," Gilead said.
Source: CNN
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