Final report on Remdesivir study for treatment of COVID-19

Editor's Note

The November 5 final report on data from this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study of intravenous remdesivir in adults hospitalized with COVID-19 and lower respiratory tract infection shows that remdesivir was superior to placebo in shortening the time to recovery.

A total of 1,062 patients were randomized to remdesivir (541) or placebo (521). Those who received remdesivir had a median recovery time of 10 days, compared to 15 days for the placebo group. Remdesivir patients also were more likely to have clinical improvement at day 15 than the placebo group.

Kaplan-Meier estimates of mortality were 6.7% with remdesivir and 11.9% with placebo by day 15 and 11.4% with remdesivir and 15.2% with placebo by day 29.

Serious adverse events were reported in 131 (24.6%) remdesivir patients and in 163 (31.6%) placebo patients.

Current strategies are evaluating remdesivir in combination with modifiers of the immune response, the researchers say.