| Topic: | I like the sound of Remdesivir | |
| Posted by: | Mark Julian Raymond | |
| Date/Time: | 18/04/20 20:44:00 |
| I like the sound of Remdesivir, its sounds a lot more promising that Hydroxychloroquine CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus patients given US trial drug remdesivir ‘are off ventilators in a day’ Rhys Blakely, Science Correspondent | Alex Ralph, Business Correspondent Saturday April 18 2020, 12.01am, The Times Health NHS United States The drug remdesivir is being tested at 15 NHS centres and results are expected within weeks The drug remdesivir is being tested at 15 NHS centres and results are expected within weeks ULRICH PERREY/REUTERS Share Save More than 100 severely ill patients in NHS hospitals have been given an experimental Covid-19 treatment, a US drug company revealed yesterday, after leaked reports suggesting that it works buoyed world markets. Shares in Gilead Sciences surged in New York after footage was leaked of a scientist describing patients making rapid recoveries after being treated with its antiviral drug remdesivir. Dr Kathleen Mullane, who is overseeing a trial of the drug at the University of Chicago, said that some severely ill patients had recovered rapidly enough to be taken off ventilators within 24 hours. Most had not needed the full treatment course of ten days. Of 125 patients, only two had died. “Most of our patients are severe and most of them are leaving at six days,” she said. A spokeswoman for Gilead said yesterday that trials of remdesivir in NHS hospitals had recruited more than 100 patients. The drug is being tested at 15 NHS centres and results are expected within weeks. Shares in Gilead rallied almost 11 per cent at one stage in New York yesterday, extending gains to more than a quarter this year, and valuing the company at about $100 billion. Global equity markets also rallied on hopes that the treatment could help governments lift economic restrictions. It coincided with President Trump outlining plans to lift the lockdown in a stage process. Both scientists and financial analysts urged caution, however. It would be all but impossible to judge the efficacy of remdesivir, which was originally developed for use against ebola, until the results of full trials emerged, they said. The University of Chicago said that “drawing any conclusions at this point is premature and scientifically unsound”. Gilead said: “Anecdotal reports, while encouraging, do not provide the statistical power necessary to determine the safety and efficacy profile of remdesivir as a treatment for Covid-19.” Remdesivir is designed to interfere with some of the processes used by viruses to replicate. In theory, it could work for a broad range of viruses and trials to learn if it can be repurposed against Covid-19 have been a priority. In February Bruce Aylward, assistant director-general of the World Health Organisation, said: “There is only one drug right now that we think may have real efficacy and that’s remdesivir.” The University of Chicago had recruited 125 people with Covid-19 into Gilead’s two Phase 3 clinical trials. Of those, 113 were severely ill. All the patients were treated with remdesivir, meaning there was no placebo arm. Dr Mullane said that after starting the drug, many patients made good recoveries. According to Stat, a medical news website, she later confirmed that the leaked footage was real. Podcast Stories of our times Hundreds of thousands of years ago, Homo sapiens were not alone. Tom Whipple explains how we once shared the earth with Neanderthals and even 'hobbits'. Listen for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast or wherever you get your podcasts Listen now She also said that the lack of a placebo arm made it hard to interpret the efficacy of the drug. “But certainly when we start [the] drug, we see fever curves falling . . . We have seen people come off ventilators a day after starting therapy. So, in that realm, overall our patients have done very well.” Gilead’s severe Covid-19 study includes 2,400 participants from 152 clinical trial sites all over the world. Financial analysts were cautious. Royal Bank of Canada said “there are major limitations to contextualising and interpreting this data, and we see the Gilead-sponsored moderate study reading out next month as offering the best opportunity for a true efficacy read”. Remdesivir was likely to be more “impactful to Gilead’s image and . . . their strong commercial portfolio and pipeline”, than a near-term money-spinner. Jefferies, the US investment bank, said remdesivir might be “doomed to succeed” since the company “will find ways to construe it as positive”. Coughing app gathers clues Scientists at Cambridge University are building an app that asks users to cough into their smartphones to detect whether they are infected (Charlie Parker writes). The Covid-19 Sounds project is gathering recordings that could enable a machine-learning algorithm to identify the disease. Last week the team released an initial data-collecting app, which has been downloaded 5,000 times. Users are asked to breathe, cough, speak and provide details of their age, gender, location and whether they have recently tested positive. The team, who hope the full app will be ready in two months, say data will be stored but anonymised and that users will not be tracked. Professor Cecilia Mascolo, head of the Department of Computer Science and Technology, said: “It could be used as a pre-screening that would inform further testing.” She is consulting to “see what can be done” over variations in accent. |