The Financial Times reports the negative results of remdesivir in the fight against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in a clinical trial conducted in China. The study, published prematurely on the WHO website, has since been withdrawn.
In view of the start of deconfinement envisaged in several countries (from May 11 for France), and given the still virulent presence of SARS-CoV- 2 around the world, the need to identify ways to fight the disease has never been greater. While several vaccines are currently being studied, aiming for preventive immunity, treatments are also essential to treat patients already affected.
With this in mind, researchers are trying to prioritize repositioning existing drugs instead of developing new ones, to see if they can work against Covid-19. Two approaches are then tested. One involves drugs that affect the immune system to control the body's inflammatory response. And the other uses antivirals to directly prevent virus replication.
From the start of the pandemic, many opted for the second approach, turning to remdesivir . Developed by the Gilead Sciences laboratory and used to fight single-stranded RNA viruses, the antiviral is currently the subject of several clinical trials, thus raising a lot of hope.
Unfortunately, the Financial Times we learn today that one of these studies, conducted in China, proved inconclusive in the fight against Covid-19. The trial showed that “remdesivir […] does not improve the condition of patients or reduce the presence of the pathogen in the bloodstream “says the FT, citing the document published by mistake on the WHO website, before being withdrawn.
This trial involved 237 patients, 158 of whom were on treatment and 79 in a control group. After one month of treatment, 13.9% of patients on remdesivir had died, compared to 12.8% of those in the control group, it can be read. In addition, treatment was reportedly stopped prematurely in 18 patients who suffered from significant side effects.
The Gilead laboratory, for its part, wanted to raise a "potential benefit for "patients treated early in the disease ". Stephen Evans, Professor of Pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene &Tropical Medicine, countered, noting that "if the drug only works well when given very soon after infection, it may be much less useful in practice .
Many trials are still underway on remdesivir, especially in the United States and Europe as part of the large Discovery trial. Other results, potentially positive this time, are therefore still awaited. Despite everything, the news of the failure of this trial remains a blow for the scientific community who based a lot of hope on this molecule, pending the development of a vaccine.
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