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Promising Therapeutics: NIH Trial Shows Remdesivir May Require Further Study
Posted May 26, 2020
According to a study in The New England Journal of Medicine, use of the drug remdesivir to treat COVID-19 requires further study. A total of 1,063 patients underwent randomization in the National Institutes of Health Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial. The data and safety monitoring board recommended early unblinding of the results of previous findings that showed shortened time to recovery in the remdesivir group. Preliminary results from the 1,059 patients (538 assigned to remdesivir and 521 to placebo) with data available after randomization indicated that patients who received remdesivir had a median recovery time of 11 days (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 9 to 12) versus 15 days (95 percent CI, 13 to 19) for patients who received placebo (rate ratio for recovery, 1.32; 95 percent CI, 1.12 to 1.55; P<0.001). The Kaplan-Meier estimates of mortality by 14 days were 7.1 percent with remdesivir and 11.9 percent with placebo (hazard ratio for death, 0.70; 95 percent CI, 0.47 to 1.04). Serious adverse events were reported for 114 of the 541 patients in the remdesivir group who underwent randomization (21.1 percent) and 141 of the 522 patients in the placebo group who underwent randomization (27.0 percent).