COHAN Charity
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Remedesivir What is it? it is an antiviral medication (meaning it works to disable the virus) initially designed as a treatment for Ebola by an American pharmac...eutical company named Gilead. Why is it so hard to pronounce? the suffix indicates that it works on viruses but generally pharmaceutical companies like to make generic drug names difficult to encourage people to use the easier trade names! Is it a miracle drug? No! Well, maybe. Despite some previous conflicting data about this drug, Gilead released some data this week from a randomized control trial (which is the gold standard in scientific research) to suggest effectiveness of this medication against COVID-19 virus. In a study of about 1000 patients sick enough to be hospitalized, the duration of illness was decreased from 15 days to 11 days in a statistically significant portion of patients when compared to those who did not get the drug. Based on this preliminary data, the United States FDA has fast tracked the approval for this medication. What's important to note is that this is not the final results of the study but it is preliminary data. The study is not yet published so the scientific community has not had the opportunity to evaluate the study. We don't know which patients were given this drug, how sick were they, how young were they, did they have other medical comorbidities, etc. What I would also like to know is whether decrease in duration of illness actually results in decreasing in severity of illness and mortality or not. So while I am cautiously optimistic about development of this drug, I wouldn't call this week's results the answer to our prayers and that we can go back to our normal way of life. There is still work to be done.