Gilead Sciences Offers Experimental Drug for Coronavirus Treatments, Testing
January 31 2020 - 6:28PM
Dow Jones News
By Joseph Walker
Gilead Sciences Inc. said on Friday that it had provided doses
of an experimental antiviral drug to doctors for the emergency
treatment of a small number of patients infected by the new
coronavirus.
Gilead, based in Foster City, Calif., also said it has
formalized an agreement with Chinese authorities to conduct a
clinical trial of the drug remdesivir in patients infected with the
coronavirus.
Health authorities have been searching for a treatment for China
coronavirus infections, which lack an approved drug or vaccine.
Several drugmakers have said they are trying to develop a vaccine,
which could prevent but not treat infections.
Researchers had been hoping to study whether Gilead's remdesivir
and other antivirals could work as treatments.
Unlike some of the other antivirals being examined, Gilead's
drug isn't approved for use in humans by regulators in the U.S. or
internationally.
Separately, the drug was administered to an infected patient in
Washington state, researchers reported in the New England Journal
of Medicine on Friday. The man, 35 years old, had traveled to
Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak started, and after
returning to the U.S. was the first person in the country to test
positive for the China coronavirus.
The patient was given remdesivir on the seventh day of his
hospitalization, Jan. 26, and the following day the patient's
clinical condition improved. As of Jan. 30, the patient remains
hospitalized, but "all symptoms have resolved with the exception of
his cough, which is decreasing in severity," the researchers
wrote.
On the day he was treated with the Gilead drug, the patient's
fever reached 39.4 degrees Celsius (102.9 degrees Fahrenheit). The
following day it dropped to 37.3 degrees Celsius (99.1 degrees
Fahrenheit) and declined into the normal range over subsequent
days, the paper said.
"Before treatment he had high fevers and was getting sicker,"
George Diaz, the patient's attending physician at Providence
Regional Medical Center Everett, said in an interview on Friday.
"After treatment, he had reduced fevers and no longer required
oxygen; his lungs cleared up, and he generally felt better."
Dr. Diaz cautioned, however, that the drug has to be studied in
large clinical trials to determine whether it is an effective
treatment for the coronavirus.
A Gilead spokeswoman declined to say how many patients are
receiving the drug or where they are based. In clinical trials of
Ebola patients, the drug was less effective than rival treatments.
In animal studies, the drug helped lessen lung disease in mice
infected with Middle East respiratory syndrome, a coronavirus known
as MERS.
Write to Joseph Walker at joseph.walker@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 31, 2020 18:13 ET (23:13 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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