As the world struggles in its battle against coronavirus COVID-19 conducting clinical trials to find a vaccine or a cure for the disease, according to a leaked report an antiviral drug ‘remdesivir’ might just be the drug that the world needs right now.
The University of Chicago Medical Center tested the drug as part of an experimental test on patients suffering from severe COVID-19, it was found to have swiftly brought down both fever and respiratory symptoms, the trials are conducted by Gilead, the Chicago university is one of 152 locations across US.
Meanwhile, Gilead, in an emailed statement on Thursday, said, “The totality of the data need to be analyzed in order to draw any conclusions from the trial.”
The industry watchers are now waiting for data from Gilead’s own controlled phase 3 study to know for sure. They expects results from its Phase 3 study in patients with severe COVID-19 infection at the end of this month, and additional data from other studies to become available in May.
Since the report, the US company’s shares has risen up by more than 15% in after-hours trading.
The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc across 185 nations infecting more than 2,150,000 and causing deaths of over 143,000 people, as per data at 07.00 am (IST) on Friday.
The US continues to be the worst-hit with the highest number of cases at 667,801 and a death toll of 32,917.
