Skip to main content

Gilead disputes report that its drug flopped in leaked coronavirus trial

(ITNTV) - A closely-watched Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD.O) experimental antiviral drug failed to help patients with severe COVID-19 in a clinical trial conducted in China, but the drugmaker said the findings were inconclusive because the study was terminated early.
Gilead shares closed down 4.3% after the data was inadvertently released and first reported by the Financial Times. It comes days after another report detailed rapid recovery in fever and respiratory symptoms in some patients with COVID-19 - the sometimes deadly respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus - who were treated with remdesivir at the University of Chicago Medicine hospital.
Interest in Gilead’s remdesivir has been high as there are currently no approved treatments or preventive vaccines for COVID-19, and doctors are desperate for anything that might alter the course of the disease that attacks the lungs and can shut down other organs in extremely severe cases.
In the Chinese trial remdesivir, given by intravenous infusion, failed to improve patients’ condition or reduce the pathogen’s presence in the bloodstream, according to draft documents published accidentally by the World Health Organization (WHO).
But details were thin and suggested limitations in interpreting the data that has not yet been fully reviewed.
A screenshot of the WHO posting, captured by the medical news website STAT before it was taken down, said the trial enrolled 237 patients with 158 receiving remdesivir compared with 79 who got a placebo.
The rate of death was similar at 13.9% for remdesivir versus 12.8% in the control group.
“It’s still not that large of a study and therefore the statistics coming out of the trial aren’t exactly robust,” Mizuho analyst Salim Syed said in a research note.
ADVERTISEMENT
Gilead in a statement said the WHO posting included inappropriate characterizations of the study, which was terminated early due to low enrollment and, as a result, cannot be used to make statistically meaningful conclusions.
“The study results are inconclusive, though trends in the data suggest a potential benefit for remdesivir, particularly among patients treated early in disease,” the company said without providing details to back up that assertion.
Doctors have speculated that an antiviral drug like remdesivir would likely be most effective when administered as early as possible in the course of the disease as it is designed to help keep the virus from replicating in the blood.
“You can put out a campfire, but once it becomes a wildfire it’s hard to control,” said Dr. Kevin Grimes, an infectious disease specialist at Houston Methodist Hospital who was not involved in the study.
The WHO said the draft manuscript is undergoing peer review before it will be officially released.
David Katz, chief investment officer at Matrix Asset Advisors, which owns Gilead shares, noted that multiple clinical studies remained ongoing for remdesivir and said, “we would not be selling (the stock) into weakness today.”
Gilead is awaiting results of a trial of remdesivir, which previously failed as an Ebola treatment, in 400 patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19, with data expected later this month.
A separate trial in China testing the drug in patients with more moderate symptoms last week was also suspended due to a lack of eligible patients.
Brad Loncar, whose Loncar Investments runs a cancer immunotherapy ETF, was not ready to draw conclusions from the latest China data.
“Just as it was too much of a reach to be optimistic about positive anecdotes we have heard, I think it’s too pessimistic to write it off based on this (incomplete) data.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

European Union will close its borders to all non-essential travel to fight coronavirus

Madrid (ITNTV) The European Union will close its borders to all non-essential travel as it attempts to contain the  ongoing spread of the coronavirus  on the continent. "The less travel, the more we can contain the virus," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Monday following a video conference between G7 leaders. She appeared confident that the European Council would sign off on the restriction in a Tuesday vote. The bloc's member states imposed aggressive measures on Monday,  days after the  World Health Organization (WHO) said Europe was at the epicenter of the pandemic. French President Emmanuel Macron declared "war" on the virus during a national address on Monday, banning all social events across the country -- including family gatherings. Macron said those who have gathered in public places in recent days have not been respecting previous measures to limit the outbreak's spread in France, which as of Monday had 5,380 con...
Post a Comment
Read more

US uses encrypted app to connect with Iranians as coronavirus sweeps their country

Washington (ITNTV) The State Department is using social media to encourage Iranians to share information with the Trump administration -- both on an encrypted tip line and through an online survey -- about the  coronavirus pandemic  that is devastating the country. "This is Iran's Chernobyl," said one administration official of the outbreak, who described social media portals as a tool to bypass the Iranian regime and connect to the country's people. The US began encouraging Iranians to use the encrypted messaging app last year, when Iranian demonstrators took to the streets and US officials wanted to learn more about the regime's bloody crackdown. Now, with Covid-19 devastating Iran, the tip line has been reinvigorated, administration officials told CNN. This time, the goal is to collect information from Iranians, find ways to share that information when it is determined to be accurate and leverage the coronavirus in an effort to fortify a relationship ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Virus creates world's longest passenger flight

(ITNTV) —  The aviation industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with travelers across the world dealing with canceled flights and travel bans as they scramble to get home. But one unlikely aviation side effect is the creation of a new world aviation record. On March 14, French airline Air Tahiti Nui flew the longest ever scheduled passenger flight by distance -- transiting 9,765 miles across the world from Papeete, in Tahiti, French Polynesia, to Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport. This one off milestone was a direct consequence of the coronavirus-induced US travel restrictions. This route usually involves a scheduled stopover at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). But when an airplane stops over in the US, all passengers must alight the aircraft and proceed through US Customs and Border Protection before they're allowed to advance on with the next leg of their journey. Current restrictions rendered this part of the journey untenable, so instead, f...
Post a Comment
Read more