Friday, May 01, 2020

Is Gilead's Anti- Viral the Best solution

Covid 19 the pandemic,  Gilead started Remdesivir phase 3 trials in US, the drug was first developed for the treatment of EBOLA , but its now opted as investigational drug for Covid 19 treatment. Remdesivir  phase 3 trials in US has shown 50 % recovery in patients according to some articles  the drug has shown improvement in the recovery rates in patient who were admitted with symptoms of less than 10 days , the patients recovery time has reduced to  5 days compared to recovery duration of 10 days. And  those patients with symptoms more than 10 days incubation the recovery duration was 10 days as compared  to 15 days. Another report suggests that the  trial conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the patients who received remdesivir have a 31% faster recovery time as compared to those who received placebo

The data coming out of China for Remdesivir, where 237 patients were randomly assigned to treatment group. 158 to Remdesivir and 79 to placebo. The study enrolled patients with symptoms of not more than 12 days . The phase 3 study data did not produce statistically significant clinical benefits, but it showed reduction in recovery time compared to Placebo.
Overall faster the symptoms are diagnosed, and treated with Remdesivir,  the drug will help in recovery time. the US govt is pushing Remedesivir as a treatment option for Mild Covid 19 cases, but more such study results are needed, since the aforementioned trials were conducted in less than 1500 patients across the globe....

For Remedesivir more broader horizon trials should be conducted before giving it a positive nod. Question which comes to my mind is, Will Gilead collaborate with Dr Reddys , Cipla or Bicon for drug production in India, as they have the infrastructure for large scale production.



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