JUNE, 2020 | THE HEALTH
15
Malaysians
in Remdesivir
clinical trials
BY KHIRTINI K KUMARAN
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A SUNGAI BULOH Hospital patient, recruited for
clinical trial,is the first in Southeast Asia to be
administered Remdesivir.
The Ministry of Health (MoH) has started
recruiting Covid-19 patients from hospitals
nationwide for the clinical trial of the antiviral drug
Remdesivir to test its efficacy against the novel
coronavirus.
Health Director-General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham
Abdullah said the clinical trial would involve 100
patients. The World Health Organisation (WHO)
helms the tests conducted worldwide.
“We have received the drug and distributed it to
nine hospitals. We have also recruited one case for
the clinical trial and we aim at getting 100 patients,”
he said during the ministry’s daily update on
Covid-19 on May 5.
The first case recruited, whowas a Covid-19
patient undergoing treatment at Sungai Buloh
Hospital, was also the first Southeast Asian to be
administered with Remdesivir.
According to Dr Noor Hisham, it will probably
take six months before reports on the trial can be
completed and submitted to the WHO. “WHO will
then look into all the reports from (clinical trials
done) around the world, including Malaysia, and
study them according to their protocols.”
Remdesivir is an antiviral drug developed by
Gilead Sciences Inc., an American biotechnology
company. The drug was tested on animals against
viral pathogens that are structurally similar to
Covid-19 like MERS (Middle East Respiratory
Syndrome) and severe acute respiratory syndrome
(SARS), which are also triggered by coronaviruses.
Remdesivir, administered intravenously, was
among the first drugs suggested as a treatment for
Covid-19 and as such has great hopes riding on it.
Remdesivir, which previously failed in trials
against Ebola, belongs to a class of drugs that act
on the virus directly – as opposed to controlling the
abnormal and often lethal autoimmune response it
causes.
It mimics one of the four building blocks of RNA
and DNA and gets absorbed into the virus’s genome,
which in turn stops the pathogen from replicating.
The first randomised clinical trial on Remdesivir,
however, produced underwhelming results.
A spokesperson for Gilead told AFP, “We believe
the post included inappropriate characterisations
of the study”, saying it was terminated early due to
low enrolment and was therefore, not statistically
meaningful.
“As such, the study results are inconclusive,
though trends in the data suggest a potential benefit
for Remdesivir, particularly among patients treated
early in the disease,” the spokesman added.
The study does not represent the final word on
the matter. Several large-scale trials in advanced
stages should soon provide a clearer picture. As
such, in a recent report, Gilead said the experimental
drug had improved Covid-19 patients’ outcomes.
The Star reported it had shown significant
efficacy at a Chicago hospital where patients who
are part of one of the considerable trials are being
treated.
The US National Institutes for Health also
reported it had proven effective in a small
experiment on monkeys.
Also, the large-scale trials under the WHO
provided data suggesting that Remdesivir works
better when given earlier in the course of infection.