Dr. Fauci says that remdesivir proves that "a drug can block this virus."
Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) announced on Wednesday that a drug trial for coronavirus patients has had promising conclusions.
The drug, remdesivir, was the subject of the Adaptive Covirus Disease Treatment Trial, a randomized placebo-control trial which started February 21 and involved 1,090 people from around the world.
Sitting in the White House's Oval Office, Fauci explained that the independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board contacted the NIAID with their study findings within the last week, and that though the trial data will still need to be further analyzed and reviewed by peers, the conclusions were promising enough that they wanted to release the information to the public quickly.
"Whenever you have clearcut evidence that a drug works, you have an ethical obligation to immediately let the people who are in the placebo group know so they can have access," Fauci said. "And all of the other trials that are taking place now have a new standard of care. So we would have normally waited several days ... but the data is not going to change. The conclusion will not change."
According to the data, remdesivir is shown to significantly shorten recovery time in COVID-19 patients from 15 days to 11 days, which is an improvement of 31 percent.
"It's a very important proof of concept because what it has proven is that a drug can block this virus," Fauci explained. "The mortality rate trended toward being better in the remdesivir group ... 8 percent versus 11 percent in the placebo group."
The drug works by blocking one of the enzymes that the virus uses. Now the challenge is for researchers to find ways to target and block the other enzymes. Remdesivir will be combined with those other drug trials until they find the best combinations for treatment.
"We think it's really opening the door to the fact that we now have the capability of treating," Fauci said, showing excitement.
Watch the news briefing here:
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