Chennai: Anti-viral drug Remdesivir has little or no effect in the recovery and mortality of hospitalised Covid-19 patients, said a World Health Organisation (WHO) study.
The WHO trial, which also studied the effect of hydroxychloroquine, a combination of HIV drugs lopinavir and ritonavir, as well as a combination of lopinavir and interferon, showed that none of the drugs showed any effect on the length of hospital stay or the mortality rate of those infec-ted, showed the study, which is yet to be peer-reviewed.
“These remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir and interferon regimens appeared to have little or no effect on hospitalized covid-19, as indicated by overall mortality, initiation of ventilation and duration of hospital stay,” according to the trial results.
The WHO said that the Solidarity Therapeutics Trial produced ‘conclusive evidence’ on the effectiveness of repurposed drugs for Covid-19 in record time — just six months.
Interim results from the world’s largest randomised control trial on Covid-19 therapeutics have been uploaded as preprint at medRxiv, the WHO said, adding that the results are under review for publication in a medical journal.
Earlier this month, data from a US study of remdesivir by Gilead showed the treatment cut Covid-19 recovery time by five days compared with patients who got a placebo in a trial comprising 1,062 patients.