President Donald Trump and Dr. Anthony Fauci both praised the drug Remdesivir during a press availability Wednesday at the White House.
The drug produced by Gilead Sciences is not a “knock out” cure, Fauci told reporters in the Oval Office, but showed several hopeful signs in a newly completed study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), most notably a 3% decrease in the mortality rate compared to that in the placebo group. The drug also helped patients recover 31% quicker than those who did not take it. Fauci stated the study will next be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.
Dr. Anthony Fauci (L), director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases speaks as US President Donald Trump meets with Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards(D-LA) in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on April 29, 2020. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
“The reason why we’re making the announcement now is something that I believe people don’t fully appreciate,” Fauci said. “Whenever you have clear cut evidence that a drug works, you have an ethical obligation to immediately let the people who are in the placebo group know so that they could have access, and all of the other trials that are taking place now have a new standard of care.” (RELATED: How Exactly Is The Trump Administration Addressing Food Shortage Concerns During Coronavirus Pandemic?)
“Seems like good news,” Trump added following Fauci’s statements, to which the immunologist concurred, “quite good news.”
In addition to the NIH study, Gilead has enrolled Remdesivir in several other peer-reviewed studies and currently administers the drug to roughly 1,700 patients on an “emergency” basis.
Former Food and Drug commissioner Scott Gottlieb also touted the study’s findings Wednesday afternoon on Twitter.
“The open label studies are helpful, they add to totality of data and broaden safety database. Conducting them was better than giving drug away with no protocol,” he wrote. “It allowed us to collect information. The NIAID study is the key though. This isn’ a home run drug, but appears active.”
Fauci just read out some of the top line results from the randomized, placebo controlled NIAID study. It is this study people that we were focused on, and it is the news that the drug met the primary endpoint in this trial that triggered the positive reaction this morning. 1/2 https://t.co/g3qQoSIgDd
— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) April 29, 2020
The open label studies are helpful, they add to totality of data and broaden safety database. Conducting them was better than giving drug away with no protocol. It allowed us to collect information. The NIAID study is the key though. This isn’ a home run drug, but appears active.
— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) April 29, 2020