COVID-19: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial of remdesivir

Editor's Note

In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial of remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19, remdesivir was not associated with statistically significant clinical benefits.

For the analysis, 237 patients were randomly assigned to either a treatment group with remdesivir (158 patients) or placebo (79 patients).

Remdesivir use was not associated with a difference in time to clinical improvement. However, in patients with symptom duration of 10 days or less, those receiving remdesivir had a numerically  faster time to clinical improvement than those receiving placebo, but it was not statistically significant.

Adverse events were reported in 102 (66%) of remdesivir recipients vs 50 (64%) placebo recipients. Remdesivir was stopped early because of adverse events in 18 (12%) patients vs 4 (5%) of placebo patients who stopped early.

The numerical reduction in time to clinical improvement in those who were treated early requires confirmation in larger studies, the researchers say.