Gilead is making Remdesivir. Suggested reading: Antiviral remdesivir prevents disease progression in monkeys with COVID-19, in a controlled trial
Source: USA News
BY ROBERT PREIDT, HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, April 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Preliminary data from two clinical trials using the antiviral drug remdesivir to treat COVID-19 patients is encouraging, researchers report.
One trial is providing the drug to patients with moderate illness and the other focuses on patients with severe illness.
A number of the patients are now recovering and have been released from the hospital. While it’s too early to tell, the researchers said there are also indications that remdesivir can possibly stave off being put on a ventilator.
“Early results are promising, and that is important right now. Much of what we are learning about COVID-19 management is centered around preventing quick deterioration. Timing is everything. I can’t say for certain they [patients] would have been intubated otherwise, but it’s encouraging,” said Katherine Perez, an infectious diseases pharmacist who is co-leading the trials.
Houston Methodist Hospital was the fifth site in the United States to join the clinical trials with remdesivir, and it began enrolling and treating patients in mid-March. Now, these Phase 3 trials will evaluate the effectiveness and safety of remdesivir. Both trials are registered with the federal government’s clinical trial registry.
The patients with moderate illness receive either five or 10 days of remdesivir treatment, while those with severe illness receive 10 days of treatment with the drug.
Quick treatment is critical, said Dr. Kevin Grimes, an infectious diseases physician and co-leader of the trials.
“If given early enough, we’re hoping that remdesivir interferes with the virus and blocks its ability to replicate in patients’ cells,” Grimes said in a Houston Methodist news release. “The goal is that it staves off the deadly inflammatory cascade that leads to respiratory failure and the need to be intubated and put on a ventilator.”
Photos: America at Standstill
NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 18: The ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center is empty as it sits closed in the wake of the Coronavirus, COVID19, outbreak on March 18, 2020 in New York City. Businesses continued to close days after bars and restaurants shuttered as authorities in New York weighed a “shelter-in-place” order for the entire city. (Photo by Victor J. Blue/Getty Images)
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Remdesivir was originally developed to treat Ebola more than a decade ago. It’s known to be generally safe in humans, the researchers said, and is backed by a large body of preclinical research, and a number of studies have shown it stops SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome), the viral cousins of COVID-19.
And other studies have suggested that it’s effective against the new coronavirus.
A study in China earlier this year showed that remdesivir could block COVID-19 from replicating in human cells, and a case report in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) focused on the man in Washington state who was the first known U.S. COVID-19 patient. He received remdesivir, made by Gilead Sciences, and he started improving within 24 hours.
The first results from one of Gilead’s compassionate-use trials was published earlier this month in the NEJM. The study showed clinical improvement in two-thirds of patients hospitalized for severe COVID-19 who received the antiviral.
Meanwhile, forthcoming reports from several ongoing clinical trials — including the ones at Houston Methodist — will provide more evidence-based data about the use of remdesivir for treating COVID-19 patients.
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Categories: Health
“Even before Covid, we’re on high alert for suspicion of clots in the ICU because they’re at high risk,” Gong said.
Even so, doctors have a hunch that Covid patients might be clotting even more than other ICU patients.
The Dutch study of 184 patients in the ICU with Covid-19-related pneumonia found that more than 20% were having clotting issues. A study of 81 similarly ill patients in Wuhan, China, found a 25% incidence of clots.
Dr. Behnood Bikdeli, who helped coordinate the international coalition of physicians looking into the clotting issue, called those numbers “alarming.”
Bikdeli, a cardiovascular medicine fellow at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, said there are three major reasons why Covid-19 patients might have an especially high risk of clotting.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/21/health/blood-clots-coronavirus/index.html
Despite what you may hear from dodgy sources on social media, there is no known treatment for Covid-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. Right now, there are only clinical trials.
Among the drugs being investigated is remdesivir, an experimental antiviral made by the US drug company Gilead Sciences. It has been characterized as one of the most promising by health authorities, including WHO officials—though that optimism is inspired only by anecdotal information. US data on remdesivir’s performance in controlled clinical trials is expected next month, and data from late-stage trials conducted in China will be released by the end of April.
The US military, however, has already secured access to remdesivir for its service members.
On March 10, the Pentagon announced a deal with Gilead Sciences in which the pharmaceutical company would supply the military with the intravenous drug at no cost. “Together with our government and industry partners, we are progressing at almost revolutionary rates to deliver effective treatment and prevention products that will protect the citizens of the world and preserve the readiness and lethality of our service members,” Army Brig. Gen. Michael Talley, commanding general of the US Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC) and Fort Detrick, Maryland, said in a media statement at the time.
Remdesivir has already been given to more than 1,700 Covid-19 patients globally. Many thousands more are receiving it in trials or in individually managed “compassionate use” cases approved by Gilead before the company shut down that pathway near the end of March.
To the uninitiated, news of the military’s deal with Gilead was surprising, shining a light on the military’s unique ability to acquire medications before the FDA has signed off on the same drug for average Americans, if it ever does. But it’s not the first time that the military has entered such an arrangement—it’s just the first time the drug in question has been one of exceedingly high interest to the public.
https://qz.com/1834939/how-the-military-secured-experimental-covid-19-drug-remdesivir/
The hospital is working directly with the drug maker Gilead Sciences on two clinical trials.
Dr. Vinay Malhotra said at his hospital, 40 patients have been treated with the anti-viral drug.
According to Dr. Malhotra, 32 patients were in severe condition. 8 were in moderate condition. Of the 40 patents treated, Malhotra said 17 of them have already been discharged.
“Everyone is talking about the discharge of these patients. Everyone is talking about how good the effect is in three days,” Malhotra said. “We were fortunate to be chosen for this trial. And that has helped our population tremendously.”
KOMO
Results of two clinical trials for the drug are expected to be available starting next week through May.
Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett treated the Snohomish County man involved in the first reported COVD-19 case in the U.S.
Information about his care and remarkable recovery were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Providence is now involved in two clinical trials to test Remdesivir in severe and moderate COVID-19 patients.
KOMONews also talked to Research Director Anhaita Jamula of EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland.
She said EvergreenHealth is participating in a randomized controlled trial of remdesivir with support from National Institutes of Health.
Thirty two COVID-19 patients at EvergreenHealth were treated with either the anti-viral drug or placebo, Jamula said.
Of those patients, 29 were in severe condition and 3 were moderate.
Jamula said of those patients tested, 21 have been discharged.
“We’re all very cautiously optimistic about the results so far.” said Jamula. “We hope that it is working.”
Phase 3 is on hold for now. Nationwide, 3600 people are enrolled for the next phase, according to Malhotra. A dozen patients at Multicare Tacoma are on the wait list.
https://komonews.com/news/local/experimental-anti-viral-drug-remdesivir-used-to-treat-covid-19-patients
Gilead stock has been falling for last three days. Maybe Remdisiver is not as effective. Maybe market is ahead of wishful thinking.