The first COVID-19 patient in the United States used Remdesivir effectively, and the pharmaceutical company said it was cooperating with the health department of China.

Gilead scientific Inc.

The symptoms of the first confirmed patient in novel coronavirus in the United States improved rapidly after using a new antiviral drug, Remdesivir. On January 31st, local time, Merdad Parsey, the chief medical officer of Gilead, the developer of this new drug, issued a statement in official website, saying that Remdesivir has not been officially listed anywhere in the world, but it is conducting trials in cooperation with the health department of China.

The statement mentioned that Gilead is working closely with the global health department to carry out appropriate experiments on the anti-epidemic effect of Remdesivir. These cooperative departments include the World Health Organization (WHO), China CDC and National Medical Products Administration, the US CDC, the US Food and Drug Administration and the US Department of Health.

The statement stressed that Remdesivir has not been approved for listing anywhere in the world, and its safety and effectiveness have not been confirmed. At the request of the attending doctor and with the support of the local regulatory authorities, after weighing the advantages and disadvantages of using experimental new drugs, Gilead provided Remdesivir to a small number of patients in novel coronavirus for emergency treatment when there was no other choice.

In addition, Gilead is cooperating with the health department of China to establish a randomized controlled trial to determine whether Remdesivir can be safely and effectively used against novel coronavirus, and Gilead will also speed up the appropriate laboratory tests.

According to the statement, although there is no antiviral data of Remdesivir against novel coronavirus at present, its performance against other coronaviruses gives people hope. Remdesivir has proved the activity of MERS and SARS virus in vitro and in vivo in animal models, and has also accumulated limited clinical data in the emergency treatment of Ebola infected patients.

Headquartered in Foster, California, USA, Gilead is a research biopharmaceutical company. Remdesivir is a new drug developed by the company to fight Ebola virus, which can inhibit RNA-dependent RNA synthetase.

According to the latest diagnosis and treatment process of the first confirmed case in the United States published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the patient received intravenous infusion of Remdesivir on the seventh day of hospitalization, and no oxygen was needed the next day, leaving only dry cough and runny nose.

It is worth noting that on January 28th, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Institute of Toxicology and Drugs, Academy of Military Medical Sciences also mentioned Remdesivir. The above-mentioned institutions jointly discovered three existing drugs, namely Remdesivir (GS-5734), chloroquine (Sigma-C6628) and Ritonavir, which have good inhibitory effects on novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) at the cellular level. Its subsequent clinical use is going through relevant procedures for approval.