US: Emergency Green Light for Remdesivir as Coronavirus Treatment

By Staff, Agencies 

The US Food and Drug Administration issued Friday an emergency authorization to use anti-viral remdesivir drug to treat coronavirus patients.

The approval follows federal trials, which demonstrated that the drug slashed the recovery time for COVID-19 patients in the test group from 15 to 11 days. 

It did not, however, result in a significant decrease in terms of fatalities among the patients.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, a key member with the US anti-coronavirus task force, said the results were "important," but fell short of a "knockout."

US President Donald Trump welcomed the emergency use authorization for the drug, saying it was "an important treatment" for COVID-19 patients in the hospitals.

Gilead Sciences, a California-based biopharmaceutical company, initially developed remdesivir to treat Ebola, but it was never approved by regulators.

The company said it would work to make the drug as widely available and affordable as possible as soon as it got the go-ahead and pledged to donate the first 1.5 million doses.