Remdesivir, tested against coronavirus showed positive results: US company Gilead Sciences

American pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences reported today that its experimental coronavirus therapy remdesivir helped improve symptoms in COVID-19 patients when it was administered early than those who were treated late.

According to the company, 62 per cent of patients treated early were discharged from the hospital, than 49 per cent patients who were treated late after conducting trails on 397 patients.

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"We understand that the trial has met its primary endpoint and that NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) will provide detailed information at an upcoming briefing," the company said, adding,"remdesivir, one of the most highly anticipated drugs being tested against the new coronavirus, showed positive results in a large-scale US government trial.

Shares of Gilead GILD, gained 5.7 per cent in trading after it announced the first results.

The company said Phase 3 trial testing the therapy in 6,000 severely ill patients found that those taking a five-day or ten-day course of treatment led to similar results.

"In this study, the time to clinical improvement for 50 per cent of patients was 10 days in the 5-day treatment group and 11 days in the 10-day treatment group," it said.

Merdad Parsey, chief medical officer, Gilead Sciences, said: "The study demonstrates the potential for some patients to be treated with a 5-day regimen, which could significantly expand the number of patients who could be treated with our current supply of remdesivir."

"This is particularly important in the setting of a pandemic, to help hospitals and healthcare workers treat more patients in urgent need of care,” Parsey said.

“These study results complement data from the placebo-controlled study of remdesivir conducted by the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and help to determine the optimal duration of treatment with remdesivir," Parsey added.

The coronavirus pandemic which was first reported by China on December 31 last year has already claimed over 2 million lives worldwide and infected three million people, with the US suffering the most with over 55,000 fatalities and over a million infected cases.