Clinical insights on the use of Veklury for the treatment of COVID-19

US drugmaker Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) today announced positive data from three retrospective studies of the real-world treatment of patients hospitalized with COVID-19, adding to the body of mortality and hospital discharge data for patients treated with Veklury (remdesivir).

Veklury, which in October last year became the first drug to gain full US Food and Drug Administration approval for COVID-19, generated first-quarter 2021 sales of $1.46 billion, and $2.8 billion over the full year 2020.

Presented at the World Microbe Forum (WMF) this week, all three of the real-world analyses observed that, in the overall patient populations, patients who received Veklury treatment had significantly lower risk for mortality compared with matched controls. A reduction in mortality was observed across a spectrum of baseline oxygen requirements. The results were consistently observed at different timeframes over the course of the pandemic and across geographies. Two of the studies also observed that patients who received Veklury had a significantly increased likelihood of discharge from the hospital by Day 28.