Possible Coronavirus Cure 'Remdesivir' Fails First Clinical Trial; Has No Effect On The Virus

In a pursuit to come up with a vaccine or a possible treatment for the novel Coronavirus, scientists had shortlisted Remdesivir as the possible wonder drug. Clinical trials conducted with the drug recently, however, have now proven otherwise.

The experimental coronavirus drug by Gilead Sciences Inc has failed its first randomised clinical trial. The confirmation comes through a Financial Times report citing draft documents accidentally published by the World Health Organization.

The clinical trials were conducted on a group of 237 patients. Out of these, 158 patients were administered Remdesivir while the remaining 79 were not, in order to compare the developments of those administered with the drug to those who were not.

Remdesivir (Representative Image: Reuters)

As per the report, the trial did not deliver any significant results whatsoever. The antiviral Remdesivir was not able to improve the condition of the patients or even reduce the presence of COVID 19 in the bloodstream. On the other hand, the drug displayed significant side effects in some patients. Citing this, a total of 18 patients were taken off it.

The results come as a major setback to much anticipations from the drug. Remdesivir has been developed to disable the replication of viruses, including the new coronavirus. With the virus unable to make copies of themselves, it is less likely for them to overwhelm their host¡¯s immune system. The drug, however, has previously failed as a treatment for Ebola.

Further tests on it are yet to be conducted before the Remdesivir can be deemed completely useless as a cure to COVID 19.

At this time, almost all the concerned agencies are working towards developing a cure to the COVID 19. Human trials for the vaccines developed in the UK and Germany have also commenced and makers of both the vaccines seem to be optimistic about their deadlines to bring them into mass use.