Once touted as promising treatments and by some even a cure, the World Health Organization dashes those claims, finding no benefit in the use of four popular Covid-19 treatments (remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir, or interferon-beta-1a) on hospitalized patients.
Convalescent Plasma Flunks Study in Covid-19 Patients with Severe Pneumonia
Argentina, Convalescent Plasma, COVID-19 Infections, Covid-19 Pneumonia, COVID-19 Studies, Emergency Use Authorization, FDA, Mortality, R&D, SARS-CoV-2 virus, The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), U.S. Health Secretary Alex AzarA study showed the use of convalescent plasma provided no clinical benefit nor improved mortality in Covid-19 patients with pneumonia.
Chicago and Detroit told to hunker down as pandemic surges
California, Chicago, Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic, Coronavirus Infections, COVID-19 cases, COVID-19 Deaths, Detroit, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Midwest, Minnesota, Mortality Rates, Reuters Tally, United States, University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)Chicago’s mayor issued a month-long stay-at-home advisory, and Detroit’s public schools called a halt to in-person instruction to curb the spread of the coronavirus as more than a dozen U.S. states reported a doubling of new Covid-19 cases in the last two weeks.
WHO study says remdesivir did not cut hospital stay or mortality in Covid-19 patients
Antivirals, Clinical Trials, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), Covid-19 Data, Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients, Hydroxychloroquine, Immunomodulator Drugs, Monoclonal Antibodies, Mortality, R&D, Remdesivir, World Health OrganizationGilead Sciences Inc.’s remdesivir had little or no effect on Covid-19 patients’ length of hospital stay or chances of survival, a clinical trial by the World Health Organization (WHO) found.
Final data from Gilead Sciences Inc.’s antiviral drug remdesivir showed the treatment cut Covid-19 recovery time by five days compared with patients who got a placebo, one day faster than indicated in preliminary data, the company and researchers said.
After a disappointing end to a nine-year trial, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration officially gave AMAG Pharmaceuticals notice of the proposal to withdraw approval of Makena, an injectable progestin treatment to reduce preterm births.
One of medicine’s costliest treatment areas could become even more pricey as Biogen seeks to layer the company’s $750,000 spinal muscular atrophy drug on top of the $2.1 million-per-patient Novartis gene therapy Zolgensma.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) said data from the company’s trial of Gilead Sciences Inc.’s remdesivir show that the drug offers the most benefit for COVID-19 patients who need extra oxygen but do not require mechanical ventilation.
Multiple Studies Suggest COVID-19 Mortality Rate May Be Lower Than Expected
Coronavirus Cases, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), COVID-19 Testing, Iceland, Immune System, Lancet Infectious Diseases, Medical Journals, Mortality Rates, National Institutes of Health, New England Journal of Medicine, R&D, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), Studies, World Health OrganizationAs the mortality figures for COVID-19 continued to rise, people are wondering where they will stop. The actual death toll for COVID-19 will not be calculable for some time, but there are early indications that the mortality rate may be significantly lower than calculations of deaths per confirmed cases lead one to believe.
An unnamed Novartis executive sold 925,400 Swiss francs ($946,000) worth of shares less than three weeks before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced data from tests of the company’s gene therapy Zolgensma had been manipulated.