- WHO recommendation was based on four randomised clinical trials of Remdesivir
- Remdesivir used to treat Ebola has been found negligibly efficient in treating coronavirus.
- Used to treat US President Trump, Remdesivir is known to expedite the recovery time period.
THD NewsDesk, Paris: On November 20, the WHO negated previous claims on the efficiency of anti-viral drug Remdesivir by advocating against its usage. The drug used to treat Ebola earlier was found to have “no important effect” on increasing the survival chances of Covid patients.
Based on four international randomised clinical trials, which concluded that the drug should not be used to treat coronavirus.
Contrary to initial findings, recent studies show that Remdesivir is ineffective in treating patients regardless of the severity of illness.
WHO Guideline Development Group claimed there was “no evidence-based on currently available data that it does improve patient-important outcomes”.
However, the EU has temporarily approved remdesivir for Covid treatment as it is proven effective in shortening the recovery period. Additionally, US President Trump had also been medicated with remdesivir after he tested positive for Covid-19 in October.
The panel of scientists who conducted the trials on over 7,000 patients has published the study in the BMJ medical journal. The updated treatment guidance advises “against administering remdesivir in addition to usual care for the treatment of patients hospitalised with Covid-19, regardless of disease severity”.
However, the panel maintained that Remdesivir is beneficial in expediting the recovery process and not completely inefficient. Another study stated that the drug reduced the duration of hospital stays for patients from 15 to 11 days. Contradicting it, a previous WHO pre-print concluded that Remdesivir “appeared to have little or no effect” on the fatality rate. The study’s result was based on trials on11,000 hospitalised patients from 30 different countries.
Source: NDTV