FDA okays emergency use of remdesivir in severe cases of Covid 19

The US Food and drug administration has issued an emergency use authorization on for antiviral drug remdesivir for patients hospitalized with a severe case of covid-19.

This will allows health-care providers to administer remdesivir intravenously to treat covid-19 in adults and children hospitalized with severe symptoms.

The agency granted authorization on the basis of two clinical trials, including results from a randomized trial of remdesivir released by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in a press release this week. The Interim analyses of the trial showed the drug met its primary endpoint, a 31% significantly faster time to recovery over controls.

According to a preliminary data analysis from a US-led randomized, controlled trial,hospitalized patients with advanced COVID-19 and lung involvement who received remdesivir recovered faster than similar patients who received placebo, according to a preliminary data analysis from a randomized, controlled trial involving 1063 patients, which began on February 21. The trial (known as the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial, or ACTT), sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, is the first clinical trial launched in the United States to evaluate an experimental treatment for COVID-19.