05/01/2020 - 18:07
- Clarín.com
- international
- United States
The US food and drug regulatory agency (FDA) has authorized the use of the antiviral remdesivir to treat patients with coronavirus, whose recovery is accelerating, President Donald Trump announced Friday.
"I am happy to announce that Gilead (the pharmaceutical company that makes the antiviral) obtained urgent authorization from the FDA for the use of remdesivir," Trump said at the White House .
That experimental drug, developed to cure Ebola sufferers, is the first treatment to demonstrate its effectiveness against the new coronavirus . According to a study carried out by the American Institutes of Health , it shortens the recovery of covid-19 patients by several days.
Trump confirmed that the antiviral will begin to be used urgently. Photo: AP
The drug showed positive results by helping hospitalized covid-19 diagnosed patients recover more quickly. FDA approval allows the agency to bring the drug to market without complete data on its safety and efficacy.
In a letter to the company that produces the drug, Gilead, the FDA noted that it is reasonable to believe that the benefits of remdesivir outweigh the risks of the drug for treating seriously hospitalized patients with covid-19.
Gilead, the company that produces the drug. Photo; AFP
Daniel O'Day, executive director of Gilead Sciences, called the move an important first step, and plans to donate 1 million ampoules of remdesivir, according to the president.
The director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, had announced that a federal trial of the antiviral drug remdesivir showed that the drug "has a clear positive effect in decreasing recovery time" of covid- 19.
Specifically, the mean recovery time for patients taking the drug was 11 days, compared to 15 in the placebo group.
This represents a 31% improvement in recovery time, said Fauci, who called this result "very important" because it showed that "a drug can block this virus."
