(CNN)Covid-19 patients who are getting an trial
drug called remdesivir have been improving quickly, with most going home in
days, STAT News reported Thursday after it obtained a video of a conversation
about the trial.
The patients taking part in a clinical trial
of the drug have all had severe breathing symptoms and fever, but were able to
leave the hospital after less than a week of treatment, STAT mentioned the
doctor leading the trial as saying.
"The best news is that most of our
patients have already been discharged, which is great. We've only had two
patients perish," Dr. Kathleen Mullane, an infectious illness specialist
at the University of Chicago who is leading the clinical trial, said in the
video.
Mullane did not immediately respond to a request
for comment from CNN. The university said it would remark once the official
results of the trial were ready.
There is no official therapy for the
Covid-19, which can cause severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress
syndrome in some patients. But the National Institutes of Health is organizing
trials of some drugs and other treatments, among them remdesivir.
The drug, complete by Gilead Sciences, was
tested against Ebola with little success, but multiple studies in animals
showed the drug could both prevent and treat coronaviruses related to Covid-19,
with SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS (Middle East Respiratory
Syndrome).
Back in February, the World Health
Organization said remdesivir showed potential against Covid-19
STAT said it found and viewed a copy of the
video discussion Mullane had last week with colleagues about the trial.
"Most of our patients are severe and
most of them are leaving at six days, so that tells us duration of therapy
doesn't have to be ten days," she was quoted as saying.
However, the trial does not contain what's
known as a control group, so it will be difficult to say whether the drug is
truly helping patients recover better. With a control arm, some patients do not
obtain the drug being tested so that doctors can determine whether it's the
drug that is really affecting their illness.
Trials of the drug are ongoing at lots of
other clinical centers, as well. Gilead is sponsoring tests of the drug in
2,400 patients with severe Covid-19 symptoms in 152 trial sites around the
world. It's also trying the drug in 1,600 patients with moderate symptoms at
169 hospitals and clinics around the world.
Gilead said it predictable results from the
trial by the end of the month.
"We understand the urgent need for a
COVID-19 treatment and the resulting interest in data on our investigational
antiviral drug remdesivir," the company said in a declaration to CNN. But
it said a few stories about patients are just that -- stories.
"The totality of the data need to be examined
in order to draw any conclusions from the trial. Anecdotal reports, while
encouraging, do not provide the statistical power essential to determine the
safety and efficacy profile of remdesivir as a treatment for Covid-19,"
Gilead said.
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