A medical team from China-Japan Friendship Hospital will be testing out a new antiviral drug by Gilead Sciences Inc. called Remdesivir. The experimental drug is aimed at infectious diseases such as SARS and Ebola. The team has kick-started a clinical trial to test the drug’s efficacy in treating the deadly new strain of coronavirus. Meanwhile, the nation continues to search for other potential therapies for those afflicted and vaccines to protect the rest.
Chinese authorities and drugmakers like GlaxoSmithKline have been dashing to develop therapies and vaccines to combat the virus that has proved itself to be more contagious than SARS and much more expensive. The 2003 SARS outbreak cost the global economy $40 billion, but the coronavirus outbreak is estimated to cost four times more.
The fact that the authorities have decided to hold human trials for Remdesivir means it’s among the most promising therapies against the virus. So far, there are no specific treatments or vaccines to cure the afflicted or prevent infection.
Mohit Bansal, a CitiGroup Inc. analyst, said:
“Gilead seems to be now among the frontrunners in developing a treatment for coronavirus.”
Not one drug regulator worldwide has approved this experimental drug, but it is being used on patients fighting off the new virus in the absence of approved treatment options. Gilead is working with Chinese health authorities to conduct the trial that will be carried out in Wuhan, a central Chinese city where the viral outbreak began.
So far, the coronavirus has killed over 700 people, sickened more than 34,000 in China, and spread to beyond a dozen nations. The trial will involve up to 270 patients with mild and moderate pneumonia caused by the virus. The people will be recruited in a randomized, double-blinded, and placebo-controlled study.
It usually takes years to research and develop a new medicine for any illness. However, expectations for Remdesivir have been exalted by reports claiming that a patient in the United States saw his pneumonia improve after he was given the drug. The doctors wrote about it in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. However, an analyst at Raymond James says that the virus had already started to recede before the man was given the medication.
Chinese drug regulators are known for being some of the fastest in the world when it comes to the fast-track approval of drugs, so Remdesivir should be available as a treatment very soon. If a drug has clinical data demonstrating efficacy – specifically against an ailment that is life-threatening with no existing therapies to cure it – then China’s drug law allows conditional approval of the drug.
On the other hand, a vaccine is still far from the first stages of human testing, with researchers working diligently to develop one. It generally takes years to create an effective vaccine, but health officials say that a vaccine for the coronavirus may be available for first-stage clinical trials within three months.
