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Drug remdesivir
Photo: ULRICH PERREY / AFP
The US drug agency FDA has approved the antivirus remdesivir for the treatment of Covid-19 diseases - as the first and so far only drug.
This emerges from a statement published on Thursday.
This is an "important scientific milestone in the Covid-19 pandemic," said FDA spokesman Stephen Hahn on Thursday.
So far, the drug, which is to be marketed by the US company Gilead under the name "Veklury", has only had a provisional emergency approval in the USA.
In Europe, it was the first drug to receive approval subject to conditions in July for the specific treatment of certain Covid-19 patients.
The antiviral drug was actually developed by Gilead to treat Ebola.
The most prominent patient to be treated with remdesivir is US President Donald Trump.
According to the FDA, remdesivir can reduce the duration of illness caused by infection with the coronavirus.
This has been sufficiently proven.
A reduction in the death rate from the drug has not been proven.
Remdesivir is not a vaccine.
There had been a dispute from the beginning about the suitability of remdesivir as an anti-corona agent.
In April, Chinese scientists published a study in the journal "The Lancet" according to which "no statistically significant clinical benefit" could be seen from the use of remdesivir in corona patients.
The Gilead group and the renowned US virologist Anthony Fauci had described the study results from China as not meaningful - there were too few test subjects.
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced last week that several potential corona drugs checked in worldwide test series had shown little or no benefit.
This included remdesivir.
However, the data from the solidarity study coordinated by the WHO had not yet appeared in any peer-reviewed journal and had not been examined by scientists.
According to Gilead, "Veklury" is intended for people over twelve years of age and weighing at least 40 kilos.
It should only be injected in a hospital or similar facility.
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kfr / jat / dpa / Reuters / AFP