Remdesivir, after large and comprehensive trial the great hopes of treatment of Covid-19.

Remdesivir, According to large and a comprehensive trial conducted by the (WHO) World Health Organization, Covid-19 has very little effect in preventing deaths, after comprehensive trial the great hopes of treatment of Covid-19.

The drug, made by the American biotech firm Gilead, has been mentioned as a potential cure and was taken by Donald Trump. A trial in the US had previously shown that it shortened the length of hospital stay. But the WHO Solidarity gold standard trial, which was based on a much larger sample (3,000 people taking the drug, compared to many who were not), shown that remdesivir had very little effect on deaths over 28 days.

Gilead was informed of the results on September 23, 10 days before publication, and a first draft of the study was provided on September 28. The WHO said the company was informed of the result in advance as part of an agreement to provide the drug for free.

Gilead signed a contract for 500,000 doses of the drug On October 8, with the European Commission, which did not know the results, at a cost of 850 million euros (733 million pounds sterling).

WHO Finds, Remdesivir Has Very Little Effect on Covid-19 Mortality,

The company before publication was made at the beginning of the trial, the agreement to release the results to, said Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, WHO chief scientist. “It is a good faith agreement,” he said, adding that it allowed Gilead to verify if any mistakes had been made, but did not allow the company to change the analysis or conclusions.

Many countries have already included remdesivir on their treatment list for Covid-19 patients, according to a much smaller US study that found the drug shortened hospital stays.

The WHO guidelines committee will analyze your trial and other data and decide what recommendations to make about the drug.

Three other drugs were tested in the Solidarity study, which recruited more than 12,000 patients in 30 countries, and none had a significant effect on mortality. They were hydroxychloroquine, which had already been found to have no benefit in the Oxford University Recovery trial, lopinavir, an antiretroviral used to treat HIV, and interferon, given as an injection under the skin.

“The interferon was disappointing,” said Oxford Professor Sir Richard Peto, who was the chief statistician on the trial. “This regime did not do much for survival.”

However, it is still possible that interferon administered in other forms or in different formulations may have some effect.

Remdesivir results make up most of the evidence for the drugs used, Peto said. “It is more than three times the size of all the other events in the world put together.”

Solidaridad’s judgment must be taken seriously, he continued. “The quality of this test is excellent. This is real world evidence. The phrase has been hijacked by people – Many wrong answers have come from people trying to play while avoiding randomization.

With remdesivir, there were 300 deaths among those randomized to the drug and 300, among others, who were not “It does not guarantee that there is exactly no effect, but it greatly limits what can be claimed,” he said.

Martin Landray, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Oxford and one of the leaders of the Recovery trial, said the results of the Solidarity trial were important but sobering. “Four different drugs were studied in more than 11,000 patients in 405 hospitals in 30 countries. The trial is beautiful in its simplicity and clarity of purpose: large, randomized, and focused on the final clinical outcome of survival. None of the four treatments studied (hydroxylchloroquine, lopinavir, interferon, remdesivir) showed valuable benefits. “

Remdesivir has received a lot of attention in recent months and was one of the treatments Trump received. It is now recommended in some clinical guidelines. But there are significant concerns about supply, cost, and access. The cost varies around the world, but is roughly $ 2,000 (£ 1,450) per course of treatment, which involves the drug being given via intravenous infusion over five to 10 days.

“The WHO Solidarity Case found that remediation had no significant effect on the deaths,” Landry said. “Covid affects millions of people and their families around the world. It is not a rare disease. We need scalable, affordable and equitable treatments.

“The WHO Solidarity Case has given the world a great right to deliver clear, free and robust results, demonstrating once again the value of the large randomized trials they provide the knowledge we need to address the worst consequences of this. Pandemic”.

In a statement to the Guardian, Gilead said it did not have complete trial data when it signed the deal with the European Commission for 500,000 doses.

“WHO provided a highly-written initial manuscrip “WHO provided a highly written initial manuscript in late September. t in late September. As of today, Gilead has not yet received the underlying data sets or statistical analysis plan necessary to validate the results. We received the full manuscript, which included materially different information than what was included in the initial draft, just hours before it was published yesterday, ”he said.

“The joint acquisition agreement with the European Commission (EC) does not oblige the EC or any participating country to buy Veklury (Remdesivir).The agreement allows the purchase of up to 500,000 courses of treatment, but countries control the quantities they choose to buy”.