Review: Remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19 — Preliminary report

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Review: Remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19 — Preliminary report

This preliminary report from a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study found remdesivir was superior to placebo in shortening the time to recovery in adults hospitalized with Covid-19 and evidence of lower respiratory tract infection. 

  • Enrollment for ACTT-1 began on February 21, 2020, and ended on April 19, 2020 and 73 trial sites/subsites:  United States (45 sites), Denmark (8), the United Kingdom (5), Greece (4), Germany (3), Korea (2), Mexico (2), Spain (2), Japan (1), and Singapore (1)
  • Participants had to meet one of the following criteria suggestive of lower respiratory tract infection at the time of enrollment: radiographic infiltrates by imaging study, peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2) ≤94% on room air, or requiring supplemental oxygen, mechanical ventilation, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Initially had a requirement for RT-PCR positive SAR-CoV-2 test result but this was modified due to limited testing capacity.
  • Patients were randomly assigned to receive either remdesivir (200 mg loading dose on day 1, followed by 100 mg daily for up to 9 additional days) or placebo for up to 10 days.
  • The primary outcome measure was the time to recovery, defined as the first day, during the 28 days after enrollment, on which a patient satisfied categories 1, 2, or 3 on the eight-category ordinal scale.
  • Of the 1107 patients who were assessed for eligibility, 1063 underwent randomization; 541 were assigned to the remdesivir group and 522 to the placebo group
  • Patients in the remdesivir group had a shorter time to recovery than patients in the placebo group (median, 11 days, as compared with 15 days; rate ratio for recovery, 1.32; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.12 to 1.55; P<0.001; 1059 patients)
  • The odds of improvement in the ordinal scale score were higher in the remdesivir group, as determined by a proportional odds model at the day 15 visit, than in the placebo group (odds ratio for improvement, 1.50; 95% CI, 1.18 to 1.91; P=0.001; 844 patients)
  • Mortality was numerically lower in the remdesivir group than in the placebo group, but the difference was not significant (hazard ratio for death, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.47 to 1.04; 1059 patients)
  • Safety outcomes analysis did not show statistically significant concerns for the use of remdesivir
|2020-05-26T11:45:10-04:00May 26th, 2020|COVID-19 Literature|Comments Off on Review: Remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19 — Preliminary report

About the Author: Megan McHenry

Megan McHenry
Megan S. McHenry, MD, MS, FAAP is a pediatrician and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Ryan White Center for Pediatric Infectious Disease and Global Health at Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. McHenry's research focuses on early childhood development in children living in resource-limited settings. This work is frequently aligned with community-engaged research and dissemination and implementation science frameworks. She primarily conducts research in collaboration with the Academic Model for Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) Research Network in Kenya. Dr. McHenry currently has a career development award through the National Institutes of Health to develop a neurodevelopmental screening program for children born to HIV-infected mothers in Kenya. Dr. McHenry is also the Director of Pediatric Global Health Education and a co-Director of the Morris Green Physician-Scientist Development Program at Indiana University School of Medicine. In additional to global health lectures, she also educates residents and students on early childhood development, basic biostatistical techniques, research methodologies, and research ethics. She mentors multiple pediatric fellows, residents, and medical students interested in early childhood development within global contexts.

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