Much-awaited coronavirus drug ‘fails in first trial’

A potential antiviral drug for the coronavirus has reportedly failed in its first randomised clinical trial, Financial Times reported.

According to reports, there had been widespread hope that remdesivir could treat the new coronavirus — COVID-19 — that has left at least 191,000 people dead and 2.7 million infected across the globe.

But a Chinese trial showed that the drug had not been successful, according to draft documents accidentally published by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The drug did not improve patients’ condition or reduce the pathogen’s presence in the bloodstream, it said.

Researchers studied 237 patients, giving the drug to 158 and comparing their progress with the remaining 79. The drug also showed significant side effects in some, which meant 18 patients were taken off it.

Interest in the drug, had been high as there are currently no approved treatments or preventive vaccines for COVID-19, and doctors are desperate for anything that might alter the course of the disease that attacks the lungs and can shut down other organs in extremely severe cases.

The United States (US) firm behind the drug, Gilead Sciences, is testing it in multiple trials, and highly anticipated trial results from a study involving 400 patients hospitalised with severe cases of the illness are expected later this month.

It says the WHO documents mischaracterised the study.

Remdesivir, which previously failed as a treatment for Ebola, is being tried against COVID-19 because it is designed to disable the mechanism by which certain viruses, including the new coronavirus, make copies of themselves and potentially overwhelm their host’s immune system.