COVID-19 patients given the drug Remdesivir in a government-funded placebo-controlled trial recovered faster and likely had a lower mortality rate, Dr. Anthony Fauci said at the White House Wednesday.
The trial of more than 1,000 individuals was sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases – which Fauci heads – and involved patients in multiple countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Spain and Greece.
The average time of recovery for coronavirus patients who were given Remdesivir was 11 days, compared to 15 days in the placebo group. The mortality rate in the Remdesivir group was 8 percent compared to 11 percent in the placebo group – a difference that has “not yet reached statistical significance” but still “trended towards being better,” Fauci said. More data needs to be analyzed to determine if Remdesivir has a statistically significant lower mortality rate, Fauci said.
Overall, the trial produced positive results, Fauci said. Gilead is the manufacturer.
“The data shows that Remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery,” Fauci said. “This is really quite important for a number of reasons. … What it has proven is that a drug can block this virus.”
Remdesivir works by “blocking an enzyme that the virus uses,” Fauci said.
The results of the trial,…
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