FDA approves drug to treat coronavirus

FDA approves drug to treat coronavirus

New information.

The u.s. food and drug administration has granted an emergency approval for a drug to treat hospitalized patients with coronavirus.

Clinical research has shown patients placed on this treatment recover an average of 4 days faster than those who haven't taken it.

Waay31's steven dilsizian joins us live with what this drug is and how alabama played a big role.

The drug called remdesivir was originally used for ebola cases, but clinical trials have shown it to be effective in treating coronavirus patients.

The university of alabama at birmingham was one of the clinical trial sites of the drug!

Take a look at your screen... remdesivir is believed to be one of the first drugs with anti-viral activity when it comes to coronavirus... it targets the virus directly.

Early data results show instead of a sick patient taking 15 days to recover, with remdesivir it takes approximately 11 days.

Uab physicians say the challenge for the drug manufacturer, gilead, is to come up with enough doses to treat people.... but this is a big start.

Gilead is donating its existing supply of the drug and will be ramping up production, with a goal of one million treatment courses by december.

Dr. nathan erdmann - uab infectious disease division "was that there was an improved duration of hospitilzation, meaning those that received the studied drug were released from the hospital sooner, and those that received studied drug had less adverse events overall, which is highly favorable to suggest this drug is improving outcomes" the emergency use authorization in the united states allows the fda to approve new drugs during a declared emergency.

Dr pam hudson at crestwood medical says all local hospitals should have access to the