02/23/2023 05:00 (act. 02/23/2023 08:59)
The drug Remdesivir works in severe corona courses. ©Portal (symbol image)
According to a new Swiss study, the corona drug remdesivir reduces mortality by about two percent.
However, only in patients without or only with conventional oxygen therapy. The results were published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.
Serious Corona Courses: Does Remdesivir Work?
In the case of patients most severely affected by the coronavirus – those who need so-called high-flow oxygen therapy – the evidence is inconclusive, as scientists from the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel wrote in the study published on Tuesday. . This could be related to the fact that only very little data was available on this group of affected people.
However, researchers were unable to identify any negative effects of the drug in patients with critical Covid-19 infection. “Fortunately, we have seen that remdesivir does not lead to more serious adverse effects compared to usual care,” study lead author Benjamin Speich said in a statement from the University of Basel on Wednesday.
Remdesivir originally developed against the Ebola virus
Remdesivir, originally developed against the Ebola virus, was one of the first drugs approved to treat Covid-19 in 2020. Since then, several international studies have examined how remdesivir treatment affects mortality in adults hospitalized with Covid-19. The results were contradictory and therefore it remained controversial how well the drug works and whether its benefit differed in individual patient groups.
Remdesivir: use in corona disease
Researchers have already collected and reanalyzed individual patient data from eight clinical studies. These are data from over 10,000 unvaccinated patients from over 40 countries who were treated in hospitals for Covid-19. The results are in line with current WHO guidelines recommending the use of remdesivir for patients with severe, but not critical, Covid-19 infection.
Regarding age, presence of concomitant diseases or subgroups with different levels of inflammatory markers, there was no evidence of differentiated benefit of the active substance for patients. Furthermore, treatment with remdesivir did not result in early hospital discharge. The effect of remdesivir in vaccinated or recovered people would have to be clarified by further investigation, the study said.