By Micah Maidenberg 
 

Gilead Sciences Inc. said remdesivir, a therapy it has been testing as a treatment for patients with Covid-19, helped hospitalized patients with moderate manifestations of the illness caused by the coronavirus.

The company Monday said it completed a trial study evaluating hospitalized patients with moderate Covid-19 pneumonia who received five-day and 10-day courses of remdesivir plus a standard of care, versus receiving the standard of care alone.

Patients in the five-day treatment group were 65% more likely to show clinical improvements at day 11 compared with those in the control group, according to Gilead. The drugmaker also said the odds of improvement among those in the 10-day treatment group versus the control group were also favorable but didn't reach statistical significance.

"If we can intervene earlier in the disease process with a 5-day treatment course, we can significantly improve clinical outcomes for these patients," Francisco Marty, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said in a statement issued by Gilead.

No new safety signals were identified with remdesivir across either treatment group, Gilead said.

Remdesivir is approved in Japan as a treatment for patients infected with the virus that causes Covid-19, Gilead said.

The drug is authorized for use under a U.S. Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization for the treatment of hospitalized patients with severe Covid-19, according to the company.

Write to Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 01, 2020 09:07 ET (13:07 GMT)