Top White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci reported that results from a trial of Remdesivir, an anti-viral drug developed by the Bay Area's Gilead Sciences that could help treat coronavirus patients, yielded "quite good news."
According to White House pool report, Fauci told reporters Wednesday that a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases trial of the drug that used a control group found a “clear cut positive effect in diminishing time to recover.”
A previous trial from the University of Chicago also had encouraging results, but there was no control group in that trial.
Fauci stated that researchers were primarily looking to evaluate if the drug increased rate of recovery, and found that patients who received the drug recovered in 11 days, and patients that did not receive the drug recovered in 15 days. That 31 percent improvement was deemed "very important" by Fauci.
In addition, the group that received Remdesivir saw a mortality rate of eight percent, compared to a mortality rate of 11 percent in the control group. Fauci stated the difference was not statistically significant, but was still encouraged by the rate of recovery numbers.
According to Fauci, the trial of over 1,000 people was the “first truly high-powered randomized placebo-controlled trial," and shows “a drug can block this virus."
