Dr. Dan Simon, the Chief Clinical and Scientific Officer and President of University Hospitals, says his staff has already treated 56 patients in clinical trials. But unfortunately, the drug is not available to everyone.

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University Hospitals’ research teams had already been working with the manufacturer, Gilead, on two clinical trials in recent days to provide the drug to patients with moderate symptoms in one trial, and hospitalized adults with pneumonia due to the coronavirus in another.

“It’s use is restricted to patients with severe covid viral pneumonia with low oxygen in their blood, requiring oxygen or a ventilator,” Dr. Simon said.

A hospital’s Institutional Review Board or IRB and the manufacturer would have to approve each case or each use. But doctors believe it has the potential to be a life-saver.

“The randomized placebo controlled trial showed that recovery is faster with remdesivir. Shortening 15 days on average to 11 days. The trial also showed a significant reduction in immortality,” Dr. Simon said.

So how does the drug work?

“So this is an enzyme targeted by this drug. The virus cannot reproduce itself and the infection is improved. There’s no question that remdesivir is sort of the influenza equivalent of Tamiflu,” Dr. Simon tells 19 News.

Remdesivir does not come in pill form; it is only given intravenously.

According to Dr. Simon, the manufacturer has offered about 1.5-million doses of the drug at no charge. That would treat somewhere between 140,000 to 150,000 patients.

• Credit : msn