Remdesivir: Antiviral Drug Shows Promising Results
Remdesivir is an antiviral drug that has been developed in the US and is showing progressive results in patients suffering from COVID-19.
The US government reported on Friday that an antiviral drug, remdesivir, has shown promising results during trial. The study had been designed to follow procedures and treatments used on hospitalized patients infected with COVID-19. This study is not yet peer-reviewed, hence, it should not be taken as an advice or approved treatment for the novel coronavirus.
A press release from the National Institutes of Health, which ran the experiment, said:
“Early treatment with the experimental antiviral drug remdesivir significantly reduced clinical disease and damage to the lungs of rhesus macaques infected with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19,”
The current study involves remdesivir being used to treat a group of infected monkeys. Two groups of six rhesus macaques were infected with SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. One of the groups received remdesivir as a treatment for six days while the other group didn’t. The treatment was started within twelve hours of the monkeys being infected, hence, the virus did not reach its peak.
However, the study showed that the group of monkeys being treated with remdesivir had shown significant progress towards healing. Only one of the monkeys had mild difficulty in breathing whereas all the untreated ones showed rapid and difficult breathing. SARS-CoV-2 showed less damage to the lungs of the treated ones as compared to the untreated ones.
This study shows that using remdesivir as treatment for patients suffering from COVID-19 as early as possible could help in achieving maximum effectiveness. The authors also mentioned that while it did help in preventing the virus from spreading and progressing, it did not reduce virus shedding by the animals.
Trials on Humans Underway
Remdesivir is one of the first drugs that has shown positive changes and progression to combat coronavirus. Clinical trials are already underway with human patients. There have been tests on patients suffering from COVID-19, who participated in the trial, in Chicago that have shown effective results. More trials are being conducted as the doctors work tirelessly to find a cure.
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