• June 30, 2020
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South Korea to utilise remdesivir in fight against Covid-19

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disclosed in a press release that Covid-19 patients in severe conditions will be given the drug remdesivir to help them.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine the drug showed positive results in a study that compared the recovery of Covid-19 patients given remdesivir versus a placebo. Patients given the drug were reported to recover moderately faster compared to the placebo group,

Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) director Jeong Eun-kyeong said that remdesivir will be given to patients with symptoms of pneumonia and oxygen saturation of 94% or lower.

Remdesivir stocks was reported to be donated by US pharmaceutical Gilead Sciences, although no exact amount was disclosed.

Remdesivir was once used as an experimental antiviral for potential Ebola therapy. The drug also gained emergency use authorisation in some countries like Japan for Covid-19 treatment and is expected to gain high demand from other countries greatly impacted by the pandemic while a vaccine is still unavailable.