New story in Health from Time: More Encouraging Signs for Remdesivir as COVID-19 Treatment

Researchers at University of Chicago reported promising results from a small study of remdesivir in treating people with COVID-19.

The findings were not published in a peer-reviewed journal, but reveled in an internal video discussion of the drug trial among University of Chicago faculty that was obtained by STAT.

The study included 125 people with COVID-19, all of whom were treated with the remdesivir, which is not currently approved in the U.S. for treating any disease. Of the 125 patients in the Chicago study, 113 had severe disease, meaning they had difficulty breathing. In the video discussion, Kathleen Mullane, a professor of medicine at the university who is overseeing the trial, said most of the patients taking the drug had improved enough to be discharged from the hospital, and only two died. Mullane was not available to discuss the results, but in a statement, a university spokesperson said “Partial data from an ongoing clinical trial is by definition incomplete and should never be used to draw conclusions about the safety or efficacy of a potential treatment that is under investigation. In this case, information from an internal forum for research colleagues concerning work in progress was released without authorization. Drawing any conclusions at this point is premature and scientifically unsound.”

Remdesivir works by mimicking one of the genetic elements that the COVID-19 virus, known as SARS-CoV-2, uses to make more copies of itself. The substitute blocks the virus from copying its genome, jamming up the viral copy machine.

The drug was initially developed by Gilead as a possible treatment for Ebola, but when early trials against that disease were disappointing, the company put further development on hold. However, previous lab studies showed that remdesivir actually had stronger antiviral activity against coronaviruses like SARS and MERS than against Ebola, so when COVID-19, also caused by a coronavirus, emerged, scientists aware of the lab data began using the drug to treat the new disease Because the drug is not approved for treating any disease, doctors cannot use it off label to treat COVID-19 patients. However, they can ask the manufacturer, to provide the drug on a “compassionate use” basis to treat the sickest patients who have no other treatment options

The University of Chicago results follow other encouraging findings from a study published April 10 in the New England Journal of Medicine that followed 53 patients who were treated with remdesivir in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Japan on a compassionate use basis. In that study, 68% improved and 57% of those needing ventilators no longer needed mechanical breathing support after taking the drug for 10 days.

Gilead itself is also conducting two studies of remdesivir on COVID-19 patients, one in those with milder breathing problems, and another in people with more severe respiratory disease. Those results are expected in several months. Other studies of the drug in the U.S. and Europe, including the one at University of Chicago, are also ongoing, although the earliest ones, in China, had to be recently suspended because the researchers could not find enough patients with severe disease to enroll.

While encouraging, the results from the University of Chicago and the compassionate use trial don’t mean that sick patients with COVID-19 should rely on remdesivir to alleviate their symptoms. Nether study compared the drug to a placebo, which is the gold standard for evaluating new drugs on safety and effectiveness. It will be several months more before those results are available.

New story in Health from Time: COVID-19 Has Been ‘Apocalyptic’ for Public Transit. Will Congress Offer More Help?

While trying to get to work over the past few months, Brittany Williams, a Seattle home care worker, has often been passed by two or three buses before one stops to let her board. Buses in her area that once carried anywhere from about 50 to 100 passengers have been limited to between 12 and 18 to prevent overcrowding in response to coronavirus, and Williams’ commute, typically a half-hour ride, now takes more than double that time. Other Seattle transit riders have described budgeting as much as an extra hour per trip to account for the reduced capacity, eating into their time at work, school or with family. Even with the ridership limits in place, Williams, 34, doesn’t feel safe on public transit. Some passengers don’t wear face coverings, and bus drivers sometimes ignore capacity limits, she says. On one ride with her seven-year-old son, she decided to get off at a stop far from her home after a driver allowed a crowd of people to board. “It’s very trying. I’ll put...

New story in Health from Time: A Montana Care Home Refused Free COVID-19 Tests. Now, Nearly Every Resident Has Coronavirus

(BILLINGS, Mont.) — It was meant to be a last line of defense to protect the most vulnerable as the coronavirus spread across the United States : Montana officials offered free testing in May for staff and residents at assisted living and long-term care facilities. But not all of them followed through, according to state data, including a facility in Billings, Montana’s largest city, that cares for people with dementia and other memory problems. The virus has infected almost every resident and killed eight, accounting for almost a quarter of Montana’s 34 confirmed deaths. Thirty-six employees also have tested positive at the facility where 59 people lived before the deaths began. Read more: ‘It’s Getting Worse.’ Nursing Home Workers Confront Risks in Facilities Devastated by Coronavirus While Montana’s rates of confirmed infections and deaths are much lower than other parts of the country, the outbreak at Canyon Creek Memory Care illustrates that even the most simple an...

New story in Health from Time: An At-Home Coronavirus Test May Be On the Way in the U.S.

As cases of COVID-19 continue to climb in the U.S. , there’s a new urgency to make sure there are as many tests as possible to diagnose people who have symptoms that might indicate an infection. Knowing if people are positive is important for guiding their next steps: self-isolation, avoiding contact with others, and, if their symptoms get worse, seeking medical care. To date, access to tests has been spotty at best across the country, and while more kits are now available than even a week ago , most are gene-based assays that take several days for commercial labs to process and produce results. That may change in about two months if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gives Emergency Use Authorization to the first blood-based COVID-19 test in the U.S. Scanwell Health, an at-home test company based in California, licensed the rights to a test developed by Chinese company Innovita, which was used extensively at the height of country’s epidemic earlier this year. “The ...

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