The WHO has recommended not to use remdesivir in patients …

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended hospital patients with coronavirus are not treated with remdesivir whereas this antiviral does not prevent death or severe forms of the disease and can, on the contrary, cause “significant side effects”.

“Remdesivir, an antiviral drug it is not recommended for patients hospitalized due to Covid-19, regardless of the severity of his illness, because currently there is no evidence that it improves survival or prevents assisted breathing, “WHO said in a statement Friday.

The recommendation was made after hearing the advice of its expert panel, the findings of which are published in the medical journal BMJ. These specialists emphasized “the possibility of significant side effects” of remdesivir, “its relatively high cost and logistical implications” because it “must be administered intravenously”.

However, they called for more clinical trials to be conducted to determine whether this drug could not benefit certain categories of patients with the SARS-Cov-2 virus. “There may be signs that people who are less sick or at an early stage disease could be an area to explore, ”one of the panel’s leading experts, Bram Rochwerg, told a press conference.

What is remdesivir and what are its effects

Remdesivir was originally developed against Ebola hemorrhagic fever and is sold by Gilead Laboratory under the trade name of Veklury. July 3 became the first drug against the novel coronavirus to receive authorization conditional sale in the European market, although it has generated more enthusiasm in North America.

In France, the health authority considered that its interest (or “actual benefit”) is “low” and the European Medicines Agency indicated on October 2 that it was going to study reports according to which the drug causes ” acute kidney problems “.

WHO experts based their conclusions on the analysis of four international clinical trials in which the effectiveness of different treatments was compared and in which More than 7,000 patients hospitalized for Covid-19 took part.

A study published in mid-October and carried out in more than thirty countries with the support of the WHO concluded that remdesivir has shown no benefit in reducing mortality for this disease.

Another work published in May in the American New England Journal of Medicine, concluded that it slightly reduces the recovery time of Covid-19 patients in hospital (from 15 to 11 days on average).

“We regret that the WHO recommendations do not take these data into account at a time when the number of new cases is increasing dramatically around the world and when doctors are using Veklury, the first and only treatment authorized for Covid. 19 in more than 50 countries around the world, ”Gilead said in a statement.