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UCLH trialing Ebola drug for COVID-19

16 April 2020

UCLH is taking part in two global clinical trials of an antiviral drug for COVID-19 originally developed for Ebola.

Researchers are investigating the safety and effectiveness of remdesivir as well as evaluating the optimal dosing and duration of the drug – with one study involving patients with moderate symptoms, and one study involving patients with severe COVID-19.

In the “moderate COVID” study, inpatients who do not require oxygen are randomised to receive the drug intravenously for five days or 10 days or receive the usual standard of care, and their outcomes will be assessed.

The “severe COVID” study has completed the phase which compared different treatment durations, and is now at the phase where patients who require oxygen are all given the drug intravenously for 10 days, and monitored for outcomes and any potential side effects of the treatment

Pharmaceutical company Gilead are sponsoring the studies, which began in the United States and China. Around 2,400 patients worldwide are expected to take part in the ‘severe’ study, with 1,600 in the ‘moderate’ study.

Gilead’s lab testing has demonstrated that remdesivir is active against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. Prior to the trials for COVID-19, 500 people had already taken the drug and no safety issues have been identified so far.

Dr Mike Brown, who is leading the portion of the studies taking place at UCLH, said: “Evidence so far suggests that remdesivir is a safe drug, but we don’t yet know how effective it will be in patients. We also don’t know what the optimal duration of therapy will be, so we want to identify the minimum duration that will be effective. In the race against time we find ourselves in, we hope to be able to show that remdesivir is effective in Covid-19 and in which stage in a patient’s illness antivirals are useful.”