Is Gilead’s “Remdesivir” the Magical Drug Against Coronavirus?

Gilead Sciences Inc’s shares jumped by 16% in after-hours trading after encouraging reports from trials of the US company’s drug remdesivir among severe Covid-19 patients.

BREAKING: Gilead shares surge after-hours as Stat News reports that the company's Remdesivir trial for coronavirus patients is seeing rapid recoveries according to early data. pic.twitter.com/8ewBsMmnjh

— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) April 16, 2020

VERY GOOD MEDICAL NEWS:
*Trial of existing ebola drug #remdesivir shows significant results.
*113 patients had severe disease.
*Most were discharged w/in a week.
*Only 2 died.https://t.co/0Co8dne9j1 pic.twitter.com/jkizngG2ie

— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) April 17, 2020

Remdesivir was one of the first medicines identified as having the potential to impact the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19. The University of Chicago Medicine recruited 125 people with Covid-19 (113 of those severe) into Gilead’s two Phase 3 clinical trials. All the patients have been treated 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,” said Kathleen Mullane, the University of Chicago infectious disease specialist overseeing the remdesivir studies for the hospital.

Patients taking part in a clinical trial of an experimental drug called remdesivir all had severe respiratory symptoms and fever, but were able to leave the hospital after less than a week of treatment, STAT quoted the doctor leading the trial as saying.https://t.co/3MkTNud1MR

— CNN (@CNN) April 17, 2020

Remdesivir is being studied in multiple clinical trials across categories of patients and results are expected later this month.

I spent nearly a decade developing the closely related #galidesivir (BCX4430, we published in @nature) that is also being tested in #COVID19 patients.

These drugs decrease viral replication by blocking the virus' ability to make new RNA.https://t.co/b8EwcBUkfa

— Dr. Dena Grayson (@DrDenaGrayson) April 17, 2020

Favipiravir, that works the same way as remdesivir and galidesivir showed activity in a study of Covid-19 patients in China. There’s a decent chance that one or more these drugs might prove effective against  the coronavirus.

Another closely related drug #favipiravir that works the same way as #remdesivir and #galidesivir showed activity in a study of #COVID19 patients in #China.

There's a decent chance that 1 or more these drugs will prove effective against #coronavirus.🙏🏼https://t.co/N9IqKt6gze

— Dr. Dena Grayson (@DrDenaGrayson) April 17, 2020

One patient with a fever of 104 and shortness of breath says after one dose of remdesivir, “My fever dropped almost immediately & I started to feel better.” By his 2nd dose, he was being weaned off oxygen. After two more doses he was discharged. “Remdesivir was a miracle,” he said.

For months, I've publicly shared my support for these drugs, because of how they work. This is *only 1* patient and does NOT prove anything. We need to see the full results of the clinical study of #remdesivir, but this preliminary report is encouraging.🤞🏼https://t.co/XsgC7ryiri

— Dr. Dena Grayson (@DrDenaGrayson) April 17, 2020

While the positive development was a breath of fresh air among medical circles after a grim few weeks, many have hinted that the preliminary data should be taken with a grain of salt, and we must hold our horses.

Remdesivir *appears* to be showing large positive effect size in treatment of severe COVID-19.

That said, this is preliminary info from a trial that has not yet completed, and that lacks a control group given the situation. So take with grain of salt.https://t.co/yJO6QSTKZH pic.twitter.com/OyjYo4uEpK

— Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) April 17, 2020

Gilead issued a statement demanding caution, stating that “The totality of the data needs to be analyzed in order to draw any conclusions from the trial. Anecdotal reports, while encouraging, do not provide the statistical power necessary to determine the safety and efficacy profile of remdesivir as a treatment for Covid-19.”

Gilead releases 'Caution statement' to calm the hysteria soon after this headline newsflash. pic.twitter.com/IGafW1WIZ0

— Dr Jasmine Lexton (@JasmineLexton) April 17, 2020

All we can do is keep our fingers crossed and hope Gilead delivers some good news that the world could desperately use right now.