Remdesivir to the rescue...

[big-n-tall]

I know remdesivir has been talked about before but it’s showing even more promise to help with coved-19. Here’s hoping it gets full approval soon.

 

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-04-21/more-good-news-on-remdesivirs-power-to-treat-covid-19

[+ purplekow]

We are using it. It is not a miracle drug but it is the best we have along with Tocilizumab. Notice what is not in that sentence? Plaquenyl (hydroxycloroquine). While still in use it is generally felt to offer little in the overall treatment and so Dr. Fauci appears to have been right when he warned at the WH press conference that the drug's effectiveness was only anecdotal. This drug does have good initial scientific evidence of effectiveness. Hopefully some people will learn that the science matters.

Problem with Remdesivir is that manufacturing of it is very limited right now, the chemicals needed to make it are hard to come by and most of them are held in large part by China.

Edited April 22, 2020 by purplekow

[Stormy]

We are using it. It is not a miracle drug but it is the best we have along with Tocilizumab. Notice what is not in that sentence? Plaquenyl (hydroxycloroquine). While still in use it is generally felt to offer little in the overall treatment and so Dr. Fauci appears to have been right when he warned at the WH press conference that the drugs effectiveness was only anecdotal. This drug does have good initial scientific evidence of effectiveness. Hopefully some people will learn that the science matters.

Problem with Remdesivir is that manufacturing of it is very limited right now, the chemicals needed to make it are hard to come by and most of them are held in large part by China.

You seem very educated on this subject. I have also read numerous articles about the promising clinical trials with remdesivir. It’s too bad we are so dependent on China for medicine and medical equipment. This should be a huge wake up call for us

[down_to_business]

Uh oh! Flopped in the first trial.

 

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/04/23/gilead-halted-after-plunging-after-remdesivir-flopped-in-coronavirus-trial-report.html

 

The Financial Times reported that a hopeful coronavirus treatment from Gilead (GILD) flopped in a trial.

The Chinese trial for Gilead’s antiviral drug remdesivir produced results that did not give meaningful conclusions on its efficacy, according to the Financial Times, and the study – which was remdesivir’s first randomized clinical trial – ended due to low enrollment.

 

Edit:

Note that Gilead is refuting this.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gileads-coronavirus-drug-flops-first-170842951.html

Gilead said in a statement the post included inappropriate characterizations of the study and that the study was terminated early due to low enrollment and, as a result, it was underpowered to enable statistically meaningful conclusions.

"The study results are inconclusive, though trends in the data suggest a potential benefit for remdesivir, particularly among patients treated early in disease," the company said.

Edited April 23, 2020 by down_to_business

[+ DERRIK]

We are using it. It is not a miracle drug but it is the best we have along with Tocilizumab. Notice what is not in that sentence? Plaquenyl (hydroxycloroquine). While still in use it is generally felt to offer little in the overall treatment and so Dr. Fauci appears to have been right when he warned at the WH press conference that the drug's effectiveness was only anecdotal. This drug does have good initial scientific evidence of effectiveness. Hopefully some people will learn that the science matters.

Problem with Remdesivir is that manufacturing of it is very limited right now, the chemicals needed to make it are hard to come by and most of them are held in large part by China.

 

 

it's good to know we have someone speaking from the front lines. PC - thank you for your service

[+ purplekow]

We are involved in two Remdesivir trials. One given to very sick patients who are on a ventilator and one given to patient's earlier in the course. It is too early to tell and it is definitely so that the leaked results were either Apocrypha or designed to get a stock bump. That said, we have had a few patients make great improvement in the late use arm of the study. I am not privileged to the actual data but we are a small site so compared to the worldwide nature of this study, a drop in the ocean, We have not used it in the early use arm of the study yet.

Early reporting either pro or con has to be taken with a grain of salt, but while this will not be a panacea, it looks to have a role in late use but do not bust out the fireworks until the study is said and done.

[+ purplekow]

it's good to know we have someone speaking from the front lines. PC - thank you for your service

It is PK as I am rarely PC.

[+ purplekow]

Just as a comparison, recent recommendations for hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenyl) the original trump panacea, are that it should not be used as an outpatient only in hospitalized patients and then with caution. Reported that twice as man deaths with HCQ as without. Again, one report and most recent recommendation. It is still being used. So do not jump off or onto the Remdesivir bandwagon, let it get to the end of the trial before deciding.

[Walker1]

Is it even possible to have an effective vaccine. I have gotten flu shots every year and still occasionally come down with the flu. If this virus is in the same family, will it even be possible to create a vaccine or is it just a dream everyone is working towards?? SARS and the other virulent strains seemed to have disappeared?

[+ purplekow]

No vaccines are 100% effective. In some years. the flu vaccine is only 20 to 25 % effective. They are designed yearly based on the expected strain to predominate. Some years there are two strains so the vaccine is only partially effective. Sometimes they totally miss the mark in predicting the strain and the vaccine has very limited effect.

Others vaccines such as measles and mumps are very highly effective as the virus itself is very stable and the rest of the time, herd immunity protects us. That is why you do hear of only the rare outbreak of measles. Those outbreaks usually start in unvaccinated persons. There was an outbreak of mumps from a Jersey short bar a few years back. I treated two patients who had been vaccinated as children but as hard drinking thirty somethings their immunity did not totally protect them, They had mild cases of mumps and luckily it did not effect their testicles and reproductive capability.

So as to a CoVid vaccine, it may be difficult to produce a vaccine if the virus has significant genetic variability over time. The different genetic strains of flu are the reason that there is a flu shot each season and each of them are different than the prior year's. The hope with CoVid is that some would become immune from the vaccine, some would be immune from past exposure, if exposure confers long lasting immunity which is not clear that it does, and many would benefit with herd immunity and the others who get the disease could be quickly diagnosed and treated. It is not to be expected that the disease will be totally eradicated, but as a public health issue, it is hoped that it can be contained and treated.

While Sars has not been seen since the early 2000s, MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome) a less reported disease seen in Saudi Arabia, continues to be present mostly in Saudi Arabia with occasional cases elsewhere. This virus has a natural host in camels and so it has been difficult to totally eliminate the disease. It has the potential to be devastating, but it appears to be more easily held locally than SARs which spread worldwide.