New data on Remdesivir and COVID-19

On Wednesday April 29th 2020, an article was published in the medical journal Lancet that presented updated data on the antiviral activity of the drug Remdesivir against the new SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus.

A double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-centre study in ten hospitals across the Hubei Province in China did not demonstrate any clinical benefits of the drug to patients with COVID-19.

The study included 237 patients with varying severity of COVID-19. The patients were randomised into two treatment arms - one receiving treatment with remdesivir (158) and the other receiving a placebo (79).

Analysis data showed that treatment with remdesivir was not associated with a reduction in the treatment period (significant clinical improvement) of patients (risk ratio 1.23 [95% CI 0.87–1.75]).

However, among those who had symptoms of COVID-19 for less than 10 days (with mild severity) and were receiving remdesivir achieved clinical improvement faster than people who received the placebo. However, this indicator was not statistically significant (risk ratio 1.52 [0.95–2.43].

The trial’s authors state that according to the results of the study, remdesivir has not show the expected clinical benefits.

On assessing the effectiveness of the drug for patients with a mild form of COVID-19, experts also indicated that the data they received would require confirmation via inclusion as part of a larger sample analysis.