- Joined
- Oct 21, 2019
- Messages
- 513
- Trophies
- 0
From Vox:
This is good news. Maybe not everyone who is treated with remdesivir will be successfully cured, but it should at least be a little more effective than hydroxychloroquine.
The US Food and Drug Administration on Friday authorized remdesivir, an experimental antiviral drug, for emergency use to treat Covid-19.
The authorization allows the intravenous drug to be distributed to doctors, who can administer it to patients with severe cases of the disease, namely patients with low blood oxygen or those needing breathing assistance from a mechanical ventilator.
Many health experts have had high hopes for the drug, which was initially developed by Gilead Sciences to treat Ebola, and it has since been used in experiments to treat the coronaviruses SARS and MERS. That early testing gave remdesivir a head start in the race toward a treatment for Covid-19.
But despite the release of some early study results this week, it’s still not clear how effective the drug is at fighting the virus, and more research is needed before it can be used as the default treatment.
This is good news. Maybe not everyone who is treated with remdesivir will be successfully cured, but it should at least be a little more effective than hydroxychloroquine.