[ti:Study Finds Remdesivir Works Against Coronavirus]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.04]A major study shows the experimental drug remdesivir to be effective
[00:06.72]in fighting the new coronavirus, American health officials say.
[00:13.28]The United States National Institutes of Health led the study.
[00:18.36]It compared treatment with remdesivir to usual care
[00:23.76]in 1,063 hospitalized coronavirus patients around the world.
[00:31.48]Anthony Fauci is the NIH's leading infectious disease expert
[00:37.32]and a member of President Donald Trump's COVID-19 task force.
[00:44.04]Dr. Fauci said the remdesivir reduced recovery time.
[00:49.88]He said patients who received remdesivir recovered on average
[00:56.28]four days earlier than those who got usual care.
[01:01.64]"What it has proven is that a drug can block this virus," Fauci said.
[01:07.52]"This will be the standard of care."
[01:11.00]He also said there were fewer deaths among those who took remdesivir.
[01:16.88]The full results of the study will be published in a medical journal soon, Fauci added.
[01:24.60]Nearly 225,000 people have died of COVID-19
[01:31.00]and over 3 million have been infected with the coronavirus.
[01:36.56]The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday
[01:41.48]that it has been talking with remdesivir maker, Gilead Sciences.
[01:47.88]The agency wants the company to make the drug "available to patients as quickly as possible..."
[01:56.68]However, the drug has not been approved for any use anywhere in the world.
[02:03.44]Other possible treatments continue to be studied.
[02:08.32]Earlier, animal studies showed remdesivir was effective against SARS and MERS,
[02:15.56]two diseases also caused by coronaviruses.
[02:20.12]It helped prevent infection and some symptoms when given early enough in the disease process.
[02:28.36]Remdesivir is administered directly to the bloodstream through IV, a continuous fluid flow device.
[02:38.16]"We are excited and optimistic," said Dr. Mark Denison of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
[02:47.36]His laboratory tested remdesivir against other coronaviruses in 2013.
[02:54.84]It was not involved in the NIH study.
[02:59.32]"It's active against every coronavirus that we've ever tested," Denison said.
[03:05.24]"It was very hard for the virus to develop resistance to remdesivir.
[03:10.72]That means the drug would likely be effective over longer-term use," he said.
[03:18.00]A less promising result came from an incomplete study of remdesivir on severely sick patients in China.
[03:28.80]That research found the drug did not speed recovery.
[03:33.72]However, that examination was halted early,
[03:38.12]after only about half the expected patients were registered for the study.
[03:44.68]The incomplete results were reported Wednesday in the British medical journal, Lancet.
[03:52.44]In France, a group of hospitals reported success with use of another drug, Acetemra, against COVID-19.
[04:02.88]In a study of 129 coronavirus patients,
[04:08.08]65 were treated with the drug while the other patients received usual care.
[04:15.32]The doctors did not release details, but said they were preparing to publish results.
[04:22.44]Acetemra is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases.
[04:29.84]Health officials believe any vaccine for COVID-19 is at least a year away.
[04:37.76]I'm Caty Weaver.
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