Gilead's drug shows promising results

New York: A potential drug from pharmaceutical major Gilead Sciences has shown tremendous promise in an ongoing clinical trial at the University of Chicago Medical Center where 36 of 53 severe COVID-19 patients who were treated with anti-viral medicine remdesivir have shown clinical improvement.

According to a report in The STAT, the researchers saw rapid recoveries in fever and respiratory symptoms, with nearly all patients discharged in less than a week.

"The best news is that most of our patients have already been discharged, which is great. We've only had two patients perish," Kathleen Mullane, the University of Chicago infectious disease specialist overseeing the remdesivir studies for the hospital, was quoted as saying. Gilead said in a statement: "What we can say at this stage is that we look forward to data from ongoing studies becoming available".

Gilead's severe Covid-19 study includes 2,400 participants from 152 different clinical trial sites all over the world. Remdesivir is not yet licensed or approved anywhere globally.