No benefit of Remdesivir in reducing COVID deaths: WHO study

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 16

Widely prescribed antiviral drug Remdesivir has proven little or no profit in lowering COVID-19 deaths, the world’s largest trial on the efficacy of 4 repurposed medication on COVID-19 mortality reveals ten months into the pandemic outbreak.

Interim outcomes from the WHO Solidarity Trial, which studied re-purposed anti-viral medication Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Lopinavir, and Interferon-β1a discovered none of those helped cut back deaths in COVID sufferers.

The trial ran by way of March 22 to October 4, 2020, and adopted 11,266 sufferers in 405 hospitals throughout 30 nations in all six WHO areas.

“These drug regimens appeared to have little or no effect on hospitalised COVID-19 patients as indicated by overall mortality, initiation of ventilation and duration of hospital stay. No study drug appreciably reduced initiation of ventilation in those not already ventilated,” stated the pre-print of the research revealed as we speak.

Authors stated the chief goal of the trial was to assist decide whether or not any of 4 re-purposed antivirals might at the very least reasonably have an effect on in-hospital mortality and whether or not any results differed between reasonable and extreme illness.

“For each of these 4 repurposed non-specific antivirals, several thousand patients have now been randomised in various trials. The overall findings suffice to refute early hopes based on smaller or non-randomised studies that any will substantially reduce inpatient mortality, initiation of ventilation or hospitalisation duration,” the researchers observe.

Indian professional Ok Srinath Reddy, one of many research authors, advised The Tribune, “This was the world’s largest trial on Remdesivir and three other repurposed drugs. None showed any benefit in reducing deaths. Of the 2743 patients who were given Remdesivir, 301 died and in the control group of 2708 patients who were given other treatments, 303 died. So, there was no impact on mortality reduction.”

US-based Gilead Sciences, the makers of Remdesivir, nonetheless, issued an announcement as we speak, saying, “The emerging data appear inconsistent with more robust evidence from multiple randomized, controlled studies published in peer-reviewed journals validating the clinical benefit of Remdesivir. We are concerned that the data from this open-label global trial have not undergone the rigorous review required to allow for constructive scientific discussion, particularly given the limitations of the trial design.”

Indian apex drug controller had earlier allowed Remdesivir for restricted emergency use in severely sick COVID sufferers.