The results of the new study leaked early in the day to the medical journal Statnews. 125 patients with covid-19 participated in the trials and received Remdesivir.

According to Statnews, almost all of the previously seriously ill patients in the study could be discharged from the hospital after less than a week of daily injections of the drug.

Now being tested in Sweden

In February, WHO pointed out Remdesivir as a promising treat against covid-19 and in Sweden has received a so-called emergency preparedness license. At the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm, Skåne University Hospital in Lund and at Sahlgrenska in Gothenburg, the effect of Remdesivir on both severe and milder corona infections is now being investigated.

Several hospitals in Sweden are included in the new trials.

The drug was originally developed to treat, among other things, ebola virus, but turned out not to be as effective against that disease.  

The manufacturer of the drug, Gilead, has so far not released any results from the studies, but their stock price has risen by 15 percent during the day and the company's representatives say they "look forward to the results" of the ongoing clinical trials.

Should block the virus

- Remdesiviir blocks RNA production and it has been seen that it acts on this type of virus, says Björn Olsen, professor of infectious diseases at Uppsala University. 

- This type of drug can work on patients who have not had too much organ impact, such as on the kidneys, so patients must not be too sick but not too healthy, because it only works while the virus is actively replicating. 

Björn Olsen says that it is fantastic if the information holds. If Remdesivir works, it will be able to help severely ill patients get out of an intensive care period, even if it does not mean anything for the spread of the pandemic in general.