The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Monday said the anti-viral drug Remdesivir may be highly effective in terminating the replication of SARS-CoV-2 which causes COVID-19.
It also said that the potentiality of the drug for the treatment of coronavirus patients is a part of the World Health Orgnaization’s (WHO) ‘Solidarity Trial’.
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By enrolling patients in multiple countries, WHO’s Solidarity Trail aims to rapidly discover whether a potential coronavirus drug slow disease progression or improve survival of COVID-19 patients.
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According to a study published on Friday by the New England Journal of Medicine, 68 per cent of COVID-19 patients who have taken Remdesivir on a compassionate-use basis showed some form of improvement in their conditions.
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Head of Epidemiology and Communicable diseases at ICMR Raman R Gangakhedkar said the researchers who conducted the study on an observational basis and not as a part of a clinical trial hinders the reproduction of coronavirus due to which the organization believes that it could be effective in COVID-19 treatment.
“Recently reported study on use of Remdesivir for COVID-19 treatment is not a clinical trial, but an observational study which found that 68 per cent or two out of three patients after treatment with the drug did not require ventilator support or their need for oxygen support reduced,” he added.
He also said that the usefulness of the Remdesivir drug on COVID-19 patients can be assessed only through the WHO Solidarity Trial.
Although Remdesiviris not presently available in the country, the government is working on to see if any pharmaceutical company can manufacture it, he added.