Remdesivir, one the experimental drug as coronavirus treatment has been granted approval by FDA authorizes.
Early study results released Wednesday showed promising results in treating patients with remdesivir versus a placebo. They had faster recovery rates, an average of 11 days versus 15. The difference in death rates is not taken to be statistically significant.
The study only included 1,063 patients, so it remains to be seen how it will affect a broader range of individuals. Although, the EAU is not the same as approval. Approval requires more testing and peer review.
Remdesivir : Most Promising COVID-19 treatment
Biochemists and scientists are running a race in developing treatments and vaccines for COVID-19. There’s one drug which has been getting attention: remdesivir.
The FDA has granted emergency use authorization to treat the Coronavirus.
Remdesivir is the drug acting as an antiviral, developed by pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences, initially to treat the Ebola virus after an outbreak struck in 2013. Still, despite its initial failures, remdesivir was later shown to be effective against both SARS and MERS. It is now being tested against COVID-19 in new clinical trials as a potential treatment.
Early test results from those tests have health authorities feeling “very optimistic”.”The first results of a national study indicated remdesivir might speed up the recovery of corona patients.
It is currently one of the most promising antiviral drugs in development for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19,
Let’s check how remdesivir works, where it is on the testing timeline, and why it could be effective against the novel coronavirus.
Working of Remdesivir
Remdesivir prevented the SARS-CoV-2 virus from multiplying itself, like most antiviral drugs. Rmdesivir goes right after the heart of the virus, instead of blocking viral receptors.
Its RNA and the polymerase enzyme used to make replicas of itself. Being a nucleotide analog, Remdesivir mimics adenosine, which is building blocks of RNA and DNA among the other four. Remdesivir is secretly inserted into the viral genome instead of adenosine when a virus infects a cell and starts making copies of itself.
The virus may try to make a copy of its RNA once remdesivir’s nucleotide has inserted itself, although it won’t be able to do so. The presence of remdesivir stops the duplication process. The process is dead in its tracks. Its devastating respiratory effects are effectively neutralized if the coronavirus cannot multiply.
Likely, it is not going to hurt the patient’s other cells because it targets just the virus. Remdesivir may also have one more benefit.
One of the reasons for an antiviral is that it specifically targets the viral polymerase, which is promising as it seems to be because it should not have adverse effects on the cell. It will also shut down virus synthesis individually.
Effectiveness of Remdesivir
Remdesivir was used as a last-ditch treatment and dusted off for some of the first COVID-19 patients in the United States when COVID-19 exploded globally. Covid-19 patients who took remdesivir generally recovered after 11 days, data of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases released showed in a coronavirus drug trial. Those who didn’t take the drug as the medication took an average of at least 15 days to recover.
The first patient in the United States reported contracting COVID-19 was a 35-year-old man who had a visit to Wuhan, China. Shortly after returning home from the Wuhan trip, he began developing symptoms consistent with COVID-19 in early January. He developed pneumonia, which was severe enough that he required supplemental oxygen to survive after the initial six days in the hospital. The symptoms had worsened significantly. As such, within a day, the patient’s condition improved dramatically when the man’s doctors received permission for the compassionate use of remdesivir.
From the batch of first 12 patients confirmed to have COVID-19, three of also were treated with the compassionate use of remdesivir. All 12 patients survived, though, due to the circumstances, it’s impossible to know whether the patients would’ve survived without antiviral medication or not.