Washington says remdesivir works against coronavirus

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According to the preliminary results of a large clinical trial sponsored by the American Institutes of Health (NIH), the experimental drug remdesivir accelerated the recovery time of patients with Covid-19 by 31%. The action of the Gilead laboratory closed up 5.5% on Wall Street.

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Compared to patients who received a placebo, patients treated with remdesivir recovered in 11 days (median) instead of 15 days, says an NIH statement. Recovery was defined as discharge from hospital or return to normal activities. Recovery time was shortened by an average of 31%, according to the institutes. The statistical reliability of this result is high.

The trial included 1,063 patients with advanced form of Covid and lung problems at 47 sites in the United States and 21 others in Europe and Asia. This is the largest study to date of remdesivir, an antiviral from the Gilead laboratory developed for Ebola but which has never been approved for any disease, for which results are available.

However, the preliminary results do not show whether the drug saves lives. The remdesivir group suffered an 8% mortality rate, compared with 11% in the placebo group, a difference too small to exclude that it was due to chance.

"We can block the virus"

"  The data show that remdesivir has a clear, significant and positive effect in reducing recovery time  " for patients with the new Sars-Cov-2 coronavirus, said Anthony Fauci, director of the Institute of Infectious Diseases, in the Office oval of the White House. "  This is a very important proof of concept, because it proves that we can block the virus,  " said the senior scientist, cautiously optimistic, but who says that remdesivir can now become standard treatment for severe forms of the disease. disease. It is administered intravenously for 10 days.

The New York Stock Exchange ended sharply higher, driven by this announcement

Investors welcomed the information from the pharmaceutical group Gilead Sciences on its experimental antiviral remdesivir. According to provisional results at the close, its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, rose by 2.19% to 24,629.40 points and the Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, from 3.57% to 8,914.71 points . Gilead shares closed 5.5% higher. This positive element relegated to the background the contraction of the US economy in the first quarter: GDP fell 4.8% on an annualized basis, the Commerce Department announced.

The Lancet published disappointing results from a Chinese study

On the same day, the medical journal The Lancet published disappointing results from a smaller Chinese study, also compared to a placebo, which showed that patients treated with remdesivir did not do better than those treated by placebo. "  Treatment with remdesivir does not speed up healing or reduce mortality from Covid-19 compared to placebo,  " according to a study summary published by The Lancet .

But the size of the trial, interrupted for lack of patients because the epidemic stopped in Wuhan, limits the interpretation of the results. American Anthony Fauci deemed the Chinese study "  not adequate  ".

(With AFP )

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• Coronavirus
• Health and Medicine
• United States