The anti-viral drug Remdesivir should not be used to treat Covid-19 patients no matter how severe their illness as it has “no important effect” on survival chances, the World Health Organization said Friday. Scratching one of the few treatments that had shown some initial promise in severe patients, a WHO Guideline Development Group (GDG) of international experts said there was “no evidence based on currently available data that it does improve patient-important outcomes”. The United States, the European Union and other countries have granted temporary approval for the use of Remdesivir after initial research showed it may shorten recovery time in some coronavirus patients. President Donald Trump was treated with Remdesivir among other medicines after he tested positive for Covid-19 in October. Friday’s WHO recommendation was based on four international randomized trials among more than 7,000 patients hospitalised with the virus. Publishing updated treatment guidance in the BMJ medical journal, the panel acknowledged that their recommendation does not mean that Remdesivir has no benefit for patients. But based on the latest figures, costs and delivery methods, it advised “against administering Remdesivir in addition to usual care for the treatment of patients hospitalised with Covid-19, regardless of disease severity”. Manufacturer Gilead said last month that the drug had boosted 2020 third quarter sales by almost $900 million. Initially developed as a treatment for the Ebola virus, Remdesivir was found in one study published in May to reduce the length of hospital stays for Covid-19 sufferers from 15 to 11 days on average. A subsequent WHO pre-print however found the drug “appeared to have little or no effect” on mortality or length of hospitalisation among more than 11,000 hospitalised patients across 30 countries. Source: AFP/BSS AH

The Directorate General of Drug Administration has given permission to six pharmaceutical companies to produce the potential Covid-19 drug "remdesivir". The companies are -- Beximco, Beacon, Eskayef (SK-F), Incepta, Square and Healthcare.  The Drug Administration gave permission considering the current coronavirus situation in the country, Assistant Director Mohammad Salahuddin told The Business Standard. A drug administration official, unwilling to be named, said that SK-F and Beximco are going to start the production after importing the raw materials within this month.  But the decision on - when the medicines will be sent to the hospitals - is yet to be made. The decision will come after the trial of the medicine.  Remdesivir is being used on Covid-19 patients in several countries including the US. It has a history to work well against the SARS and Ebola virus. Source: Business Standard. AH

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, reports CNN. 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. Mullane did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN. The University of Chicago said Mullane's comments constituted partial information. "Partial data from an ongoing clinical trial is by definition incomplete and should never be used to draw conclusions about the safety or efficacy of a potential treatment that is under investigation," it said in a statement. "In this case, information from an internal forum for research colleagues concerning work in progress was released without authorization. Drawing any conclusions at this point is premature and scientifically unsound." There is no approved therapy for the Covid-19, which can cause severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome in some patients. But the National Institutes of Health is organizing trials of several drugs and other treatments, among them remdesivir. The drug, made by Gilead Sciences, was tested against Ebola with little success, but multiple studies in animals showed the drug could both prevent and treat coronaviruses related to Covid-19, including SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome). Back in February, the World Health Organization said remdesivir showed potential against Covid-19. STAT said it obtained and viewed a copy of the video discussion Mullane had last week with colleagues about the trial. "Most of our patients are severe and most of them are leaving at six days, so that tells us duration of therapy doesn't have to be 10 days," she was quoted as saying. However, the trial does not include what's known as a control group, so it will be difficult to say whether the drug is truly helping patients recover better. With a control arm, some patients do not receive the drug being tested so that doctors can determine whether it's the drug that is really affecting their condition. 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: UNB AH