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A vial of the antiviral drug remdesivir is seen during a press conference at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Hamburg, Germany, on April 8. Ulrich Perrey/Pool/AFP/
Gilead Sciences has studied its antiviral drug remdesivir as a possible treatment option for patients hospitalized with severe Co-19, but now research is underway to investigate whether the medication can be used earlier in the course of illness — such as when the disease is still “moderate,” the company’s CEO Daniel O’Day said Friday morning on “Today.”
“Our scientists are hard at work to see — now that we know that this medicine has an impact on patients — if we can bring it earlier into the disease,” O’Day told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie on Friday.
Some background: Earlier this week, Gilead announced results of a trial that used remdesivir in patients with severe Co-19. It found that the patients who took the investigational drug for five days or 10 days saw similar results.
“The results that were announced this week on the medicine remdesivir showed that the medicine is effective in reducing the course of the illness and we also showed by the way that many patients can benefit from only five days of IV treatment versus 10 days of IV treatment,” O’Day said on Friday.
“But that was predominantly in the severe patient population,” O’Day said. “So we also have other studies that are underway right now that will look at bringing it to more moderate hospitalized patients and will look at different ways of potentially delivering this medicine to patients.”
While remdesivir currently is administered to Co-19 patients through an IV, researchers are examining whether it could be delivered as a subcutaneous injection or orally.
O’Day said that would be “with the intention that maybe we can treat patients earlier — earlier in the hospital setting and perhaps even outside of the hospital setting.”
Remember: Earlier this week, the World Health Organization said it was too early to comment on the remdesivir trial results.
“Typically, you don’t have one study that will come out that will be a game changer,” said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead for the coronavirus response.
