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What You Need to Know About Remdesivir, the Potential Coronavirus Drug

Dana G Smith
Elemental
Published in
6 min readApr 15, 2020

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Photo: Ulrich Perrey/Getty Images

TThere’s promising first data on the effectiveness of the experimental drug remdesivir to treat Covid-19. Published Friday, April 10 in the New England Journal of Medicine, 36 out of 53 patients (68%) who received the drug showed signs of improvement, 25 of whom were eventually sent home. Seven people (13%) died. Of the 30 people who were on ventilators in the study, 57% were able to come off oxygen support.

For comparison, studies from China and the U.K. report that 86% and 66%, respectively, of Covid-19 patients who didn’t receive remdesivir died after being put on a ventilator.

Physicians involved in the remdesivir research say they are encouraged by the results, but they caution that the findings are preliminary. Most glaring, the data were not part of a clinical trial but come from compassionate use of the drug, which means there was no placebo arm to compare people who received it with those who did not. As a result, it is impossible to know whether the patients would have recovered at a similar rate without the medication. Several clinical trials are currently ongoing to provide this…

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Elemental
Elemental

Published in Elemental

Elemental is a former publication from Medium for science-backed health and wellness coverage. Currently inactive and not taking submissions.

Dana G Smith
Dana G Smith

Written by Dana G Smith

Health and science writer • PhD in 🧠 • Words in Scientific American, STAT, The Atlantic, The Guardian • Award-winning Covid-19 coverage for Elemental

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