An ampule of Ebola drug Remdesivir is pictured during a news conference at the University Hospital Eppendorf in Hamburg, Germany, April 8, 2020. — Ulrich Perrey/Pool pic via Reuters
The summary said the Chinese trial involved 237 patients, with 158 on the drug and 79 in a control group. Remdesivir was stopped early in 18 patients because of side effects. A spokesman for Gilead told AFP: “We believe the post included inappropriate characterizations of the study,” saying it was terminated early due to low enrollment and was therefore not statistically meaningful.
Remdesivir, which is administered intravenously, was among the first drugs suggested as a treatment for the novel coronavirus and as such has great hopes riding on it. The US National Institutes for Health also reported it had proven effective in a small experiment on monkeys.