The US approves the use of remdesivir as a treatment against covid-19

A doctor holds a dose of remdesivir.Zsolt Czegledi / EFE

The United States drug regulatory agency (FDA) has approved the full use of the antiviral drug remdesivir to be used in the treatment of patients hospitalized for covid-19.

The antiviral, which was already authorized for use in emergencies in May, becomes the first and only drug approved for the coronavirus, according to its manufacturer, the Gilead Science laboratory.

US President Donald Trump received remdesivir administered intravenously during his treatment to overcome the coronavirus.

The National Institute of Health had already shown in a study that patients hospitalized for covid who have been treated with remdesivir reduce hospital stays by five days.

Soon after, several governments purchased tens of thousands of reserve doses from the laboratory.

However, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned last week that a global trial of coronavirus therapies determined that the drug does not have a substantial effect on reducing hospital days or the chances of survival in cases. more serious virus.

Gilead has disputed the WHO's claims, as their study was not supervised by experts.

Furthermore, they point out that the experiment should have been done “blind”, meaning that the participants and their doctors should not know what treatments were being used in the study to avoid opinion biases or prejudices.

Remdesivir from this laboratory was used in the compassionate treatment of the first covid patient in the United States.

The @US_FDA today approved our antiviral to treat patients with COVID-19 requiring hospitalization.

Read more: https://t.co/Z5lO227KVU.

pic.twitter.com/NqebDeoWBv

- Gilead Sciences (@GileadSciences) October 22, 2020

Remdesivir will be sold under the Veklury brand name, and the five-day treatment will cost $ 3,120 or $ 2,340 for government buyers like the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Gilead shares rose 4.3% in the stock market, reaching a value of $ 63.30.

Gilead has indicated that it is meeting demand from the United States and expects to be able to fill orders globally by the end of October.

The company said its drug has regulatory approvals temporary authorizations in an additional 50 countries.

The Gilead laboratory has highlighted the FDA authorization has occurred after a more rigorous and definitive verification process than the one used for the approval of remdesivir in May.

In addition, the laboratory is authorized for its medicine to be used in 50 other countries.

Gilead has acknowledged that it is still working on understanding the impact of Veklury in different settings and how it works in combination with other therapies.

Currently, there are more authorized treatments, but only for emergencies.