Late Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration gave full approval to remdesivir, Gilead Sciences’ treatment for Covid-19. The news came just a week after a large study conducted by the World Health Organization failed to show that the drug had any benefit on mortality. The approval was largely based on an earlier study, conducted by National Institutes of Health, which showed the drug helps patients recover more quickly, as well as two other studies conducted by Gilead.
STAT senior writers Adam Feuerstein and Matthew Herper sat down to discuss the decision, and what it means for biotech and the battle against Covid-19.
Adam: Did you send flowers and a condolence card to Peter Bach?
I am not sure what is the point of this article.
It seems the author cannot differentiate between reducing stay in hospital and mortality. It doesn’t mean that because it can make some people recover faster means that it can reduce mortality. There are different factors why people enter the mortality state. Health conditions, genetic ( include gender, blood type, genes, etc), age, how fast was the person treated upon getting infected, amount of virus that entered the body, etc.
That said, even if remdevisir does not reduce mortality but can reduce the recovery time and stay in the hospital, then it is still worth approving it.
Why, because it free ups the hospital, which can mean life an death to those who needs it. Second, if people recover faster, they infect less people.
Hope the author is not having a tunnel vision and start looking at the bigger picture. One open bed and one less person infected ( which can exponentially increase) goes a long way. A small gain is still a gain in this pandemic.