Study of Veklury (remdesivir) for COVID-19 shows the drug is chiefly helpful to patients on supplemental oxygen. Gilead Sciences

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that remdesivir – the Gilead Sciences drug authorized to treat COVID-19 – is chiefly helpful to those on supplemental oxygen, rather than patients who progress to requiring a ventilator or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

“The benefit was most apparent in patients … requiring oxygen,” the study says, though noting that’s most likely due to the larger sample size in that category. “Confidence intervals for baseline ordinal scores of 4 (not receiving oxygen), 6 (receiving high-flow oxygen), and 7 (receiving ECMO or mechanical ventilation) are wide.”

The findings stress the need to identify COVID-19 cases and start antiviral treatment “before the pulmonary disease progresses to require mechanical ventilation.”

See- “Remdesivir for the Treatment of Covid-19 — Preliminary Report”- John H. Beigel, M.D., Kay M. Tomashek, M.D., M.P.H., Lori E. Dodd, Ph.D., Aneesh K. Mehta, M.D.,, et al., for the ACTT-1 Study Group Members-May 22, 2020
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2007764.