Question

How effective is remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19? For which patient populations is it known to be most effective? please be a detail with your answer and support your response with any primary article you found thru google scholar (please name the article ) thank you

Answer 1

Remdesivir is an antiviral agent which is prodrug of nucleotide analogue. It is an emergency IV drug which is being used to treat the critically il COVID patients and the main action of this drug is that it interferes with the multiplication of virus and studies conducted show that the time to recovery in the remdesivir group is 21 days and mortality is 14-18%(statistically not proven). Patients who received remdesivir had a 30% faster recovery. This percentage of recovery is of great help for both the patients and hospitals in reduction of the ICU stay thus further helping in the reduction of nosocomial infections. This IV drug is mainly administered to patients who are severely affected. Many studies are still in process to see if this drug can be given to patients who have mild symptoms or who are at risk of developing the infections so as to prevent its progression.

Dosage

• It is administered intravenously and the duration of treatment is yet to be known.
• For adults requiring ventilation or ECNO a loading dose of 200mg over 30-120 minutes followed by a maintenance dose of 100mg over 30-120 minutes to be given. This has to be given daily for 9 additional days for a total of ten days treatment.
• For adults not requiring ventilation or ECNHO a loading dose of 200mg over 30-120 minutes followed by a maintenance dose of 100mg over 30-120 minutes to be given. This has to be given daily for 4 additional days for a total of 5 days treatment. If no clinical improvement observed the treatment can be extended for an another 5 days for a total of 10 days.

The patient population which is known to be most effective for remdesivir is a group of adults who are critically ill.

Below mentioned are few of the scholar articles which give a detailed study done on different group of individuals and the effectiveness of the medication in controlling the number of deaths

1. Scholar article - Compassionate Use of Remdesivir for Patients with Severe Covid-19

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2007016

2. Article- Remdesivir in adults with severe COVID-19: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre trial

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31022-9/fulltext

Note: Many studies are still being conducted and the statistical data is different for different population size selected. For detailed information refer the articles provided. Please leave a comment if any further information required.