STUDY ON REMDESIVIR MEDICINE ACTIVITIES AGAINST VIRUS CORONA

Photo provided by Gilead Science in March 2020, a bottle of Remdesivir is visually inspected at a production site of Gilead Company, USA.

A large study showed that the experimental Remdesivir drug was effective against the new Corona Virus, US health officials said.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) leads the study. Remdesivir drug treatment compared with conventional care treatment in 1063 Corona virus infected patients hospitalized worldwide.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is a leading infectious disease specialist at the National Institutes of Health and a member of the task force of President Donald Trump, COVID-19. Dr Fauci said the drug Remdesivir reduced recovery time. Patients treated with Remdesivir, on average, recovered, on average, four days earlier than patients in conventional care, he said.

"What has been shown is that there is a drug that can stop this virus," said Dr. Fauci. "This will be the standard of care."

There were also fewer deaths among patients taking Remdesivir, he said. The full results of the study will soon be published in a medical journal, added Dr. Fauci. Nearly 225,000 people have died from COVID-19 and more than 3 million people have been infected with the Corona Virus that first appeared in China late last year. The US Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday it had spoken to drugmaker Remdesivir - Gilead Sciences Company. The agency wants Gilead Sciences to make the drug available to patients as quickly as possible ... However, this drug has not been approved for use anywhere in the world. Other treatments may continue to be studied. Previously, animal studies showed that the drug Remdesivir is effective against SARS and MERS, two diseases also caused by the Corona Virus. Remdesivir helps to prevent infections and certain symptoms when given early enough during the course of the illness.

Remdesivir is injected directly into the bloodstream through a vein, a therapy that delivers fluid directly into a vein. "We are very excited and optimistic," said Dr. Mark Denison of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. His lab tested Remdesivir against other Corona Viruses in 2013. It is not related to research by the US National Institutes of Health.

"It was active against every Corona Virus we have ever tested," said Dr. Denison. It is very difficult for the virus to develop resistance to Remdesivir. That means the drug is likely to be effective with long-term use, he said. A less promising result comes from an incomplete study of Remdesivir in patients with severe illness in China. That study shows that the drug does not speed up recovery. However, that examination was stopped soon, after only about half of the patients were expected to be enrolled in the study. Incomplete results were reported Wednesday in the British medical journal, Lancet.

In France, a group of hospitals have reported success using another drug, Acetemra, against COVID-19. In one study, over 129 patients infected with Corona Virus, 65 of them were treated with drugs while the other patients received conventional care. Doctors have not disclosed details, but they said they are preparing to release the results. Acetemra is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions.

Health officials believe any vaccine used to treat COVID-19 should take at least a year to be completed.

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Translator: Dr.Nguyen Huu Tung and partner