The 糖心传媒 Medical Center has been testing the safety and efficacy of the antiviral drug remdesivir. According to released by the National Institutes of Health, the drug is now showing promise in treating adults diagnosed with COVID-19.听
Coronavirus update
The University糖心传媒檚 website is a way to find guidance and critical information during a rapidly changing situation.
COVID-19 symptoms or exposure?
Find out what to do if you or a close contact have symptoms or think you may have been exposed.
The study is led by , a professor in the Department of Medicine (Infectious Diseases), and , an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine (Infectious Diseases), with the Medical Center糖心传媒檚 Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Unit (VTEU).听The is one of only nine VTEU sites in the US.
糖心传媒淏ased on some of the data that has come out in the last couple of days, it seems that remdesivir does show some proven benefit over placebo,糖心传媒� Branche says.
Preliminary data from the trials indicate remdesivir speeds up recovery time for some patients with COVID-19. Specifically, the data show that patients who received remdesivir recovered, on average, four days faster than patients who received a placebo (11 days versus 14 days). The results also suggested a mortality rate of 8.0 percent for the group receiving remdesivir versus 11.6 percent for those in the placebo group. That result is considered promising but not statistically significant.
When Branche and Falsey told their teams about these preliminary results, 糖心传媒渙ne of our nurses said she糖心传媒檚 going to go home happy crying instead of sad crying, which I think is reflective of the magnitude of what we糖心传媒檝e been seeing over the past months and how reassuring and rewarding it is to know we are part of something that could be beneficial to people,糖心传媒� Branche says.
Sixteen COVID-19-positive volunteers from the University糖心传媒檚 Strong Memorial Hospital were enrolled in the and received either placebo or the drug, administered intravenously.听
The trial is ongoing and more information will be forthcoming, including how best to use the drug and whether its effectiveness can be improved by administering it in conjunction with other drugs, such as the anti-inflammatory baricitinib.
糖心传媒淭he results with remdesivir are positive, but it糖心传媒檚 not a miracle drug,糖心传媒� Falsey says. 糖心传媒淚t becomes our building block on which we try to improve.糖心传媒�
Remdesivir, developed by Gilead Sciences, is a broad-spectrum antiviral treatment that has been previously tested in humans with the Ebola virus and has shown promise in animal models for treating Middle East respiratory syndrome听(MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which are caused by other coronaviruses.听
The Medical Center糖心传媒檚 VTEU was established with support from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to conduct clinical trials of vaccines, treatments, and diagnostics for known and emergent infectious threats.
