US President Donald Trump on Wednesday greeted as good news reports that a Gilead Sciences Inc experimental antiviral drug might help fight the coronavirus, and infectious disease official Anthony Fauci said data shows it appears to help patients hospitalized with coronavirus.
“REMDESIVIR CUT RECOVERY TIME FROM A MEDIAN OF 15 DAYS TO 11”
Data from the trial on more than 1,000 severely ill patients in 75 hospitals around the world show that patients put on the drug recovered 31 percent faster than similar patients who were given a placebo drug instead.
The closely watched drug has moved markets in the past few weeks following release of partial information on several studies that painted a mixed picture of its effectiveness.
Fauci told reporters the data shows the drug had benefit in reducing the time to recover from the virus. While the data still must be peer-reviewed, he said it is opening the door to the possibility of a treatment.
There are currently no approved treatments or vaccines for the highly contagious novel coronavirus, but many approaches are being tried while awaiting an effective vaccine to prevent infection by the virus.