Coronavirus: US approves emergency use of remdesivir to treat coronavirus
- Food and Drug Administration chief says experimental drug will be available for patients hospitalised with disease
- Preliminary results from a study show the medication shortened recovery times by 31 per cent
US regulators on Friday allowed emergency usage of the experimental drug remdesivir after preliminary results of a trial showed positive results for some Covid-19 patients.
President Donald Trump announced the Food and Drug Administration approval at the White House alongside FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn, who said the drug developed by US pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences could be administered to patients hospitalised with the disease.
“While there is limited information known about the safety and effectiveness of using remdesivir to treat people in the hospital with Covid-19, the investigational drug was shown in a clinical trial to shorten the time to recovery in some patients,” the FDA said in announcement.
The FDA approval makes remdesivir the first drug approved by medical authorities to help fight Covid-19, a deadly respiratory ailment caused by the coronavirus, which has killed more than 230,000 people worldwide and has wreaked economic havoc globally.
The preliminary results from the study, announced by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Wednesday, showed that the medication shortened recovery times by 31 per cent, or about four days on average, for hospitalised Covid-19 patients.
