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Review
. 2020 Jul-Aug;14(4):641-648.
doi: 10.1016/j.dsx.2020.05.018. Epub 2020 May 12.

Remdesivir in COVID-19: A critical review of pharmacology, pre-clinical and clinical studies

Awadhesh Kumar Singh  1 , Akriti Singh  2 , Ritu Singh  3 , Anoop Misra  4
Affiliations
Review

Remdesivir in COVID-19: A critical review of pharmacology, pre-clinical and clinical studies

Awadhesh Kumar Singh et al. Diabetes Metab Syndr. 2020 Jul-Aug.

Abstract

Background & aims: Remdesivir is a broad spectrum anti-viral drug that has shown to inhibit SARS-CoV-2, in vitro and in vivo. In absence of any effective treatment for SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19), remdesivir has been tried for a compassionate use in severe COVID-19. Newer randomized controlled studies that have recently become available, showed a mixed result. We aimed to systematically search the literature to understand the pharmacology and clinical effects of remdesivir in patients with COVID-19.

Methods: We systematically searched the PubMed, ClinicalTrial.Org and MedRxiv database up till May 5, 2020 using specific key words such as "Remdesivir" or 'GS-5734″ AND "COVID-19" or "SARS-CoV-2" and retrieved all the article published in English language, that have reported the pharmacology and the clinical outcomes of remdesivir in patients with COVID-19.

Results: Initial compassionate use of remdesivir has shown a fairly good result, but difficult to quantify, in the absence of control arm. While the very first double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial conducted in Wuhan, did not find any significant benefit compared to the control, the preliminary result of another similar multi-country trial has shown a significant faster time to recovery but without any difference in mortality.

Conclusions: Remdesivir has shown a mixed result in patients with COVID-19 with an acceptable side effect. However, jury is still out while awaiting the results from the forthcoming trials.

Keywords: COVID-19; Clinical outcome; Mortality; Remdesivir; SARS-Co-V-2.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest Nothing to declare by all the authors.

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