Anti-viral drug remdesivir has little to no effect on Covid patients’ chances of survival, a study from the World Health Organization (WHO) has found.
The WHO trial evaluated four potential medications for Covid-19, including remdesivir and hydroxychloroquine.
Remdesivir was among the first to be used to treat coronavirus, and was recently given to US President Donald Trump when he was hospitalised.
The drug’s manufacturer Gilead rejected the findings of the trial.
In a statement, Gilead said the findings of the study were “inconsistent” with others, and that it was “concerned” that the results have yet to be reviewed.
What did the WHO study find?
For its Solidarity clinical trial, the WHO tested the effects four potential treatments – remdesivir, an Ebola drug, was one, but they also looked at malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, interferon, and the HIV drug combination of lopinavir and ritonavir.
The drugs were tested with 11,266 adult patients in total, across 500 hospitals in more than 30 different countries.
