More On: Coronavirus
Joe Biden Tests Positive for Wuhan Coronavirus Again
Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers Fined for Violating COVID-19 Protocols
Shailene Woodley Defends Aaron Amid Rumored COVID-19 Quarantine Outings
Howard Stern: Aaron Rodgers Should Be Fired for 'Bulls--t' Vaccine Comments
Emilio Estevez Denies Being Anti-Vax After Exiting 'Mighty Ducks' Series
A scientist at a medicines company performs research for a coronavirus vaccine at a laboratory in San Diego, Calif., U.S., March 17, 2020. A clinical trial of a potential antiviral treatment for the coronavirus is showing early signs of success: nearly all the coronavirus patients in the trial were discharged in less than a week …
A clinical trial of a potential antiviral treatment for the coronavirus is showing early signs of success: nearly all the coronavirus patients in the trial were discharged in less than a week after beginning treatment, according to data reviewed by Stat.
The drug, remdesivir, touted by President Trump last month as having a “real chance” of working against the virus, is in two Phase-3 clinical trials conducted by the University of Chicago. The studies treated 125 people who had tested positive — 113 of whom were severely ill — with daily infusions of remdesivir.
“The best news is that most of our patients have already been discharged, which is great. We’ve only had two patients perish,” Kathleen Mullane, the University of Chicago infectious disease specialist in charge of the trials for the hospital, explained in a video recording this week.
She added that the treatment is seeing patients with “high fevers” come down “quite quickly,” as well as people coming off ventilators “a day after starting therapy.”
“Most of our patients are severe and most of them are leaving at six days, so that tells us duration of therapy doesn’t have to be 10 days. We have very few that went out to 10 days, maybe three,” she said.
In public statements, both the University of Chicago and Gilead, the U.S. maker of remdesivir, urged caution. Chicago said “drawing any conclusions at this point is premature and scientifically unsound,” with the studies lacking a control group.
“The totality of the data need to be analyzed in order to draw any conclusions from the trial,” Gilead stated. “. . . What we can say at this stage is that we look forward to data from ongoing studies becoming available.”
Following news of the trial, the company’s stock surged over 16 percent ahead of Friday’s opening bell.
