Latest data show remdesivir reduces risk of death in COVID-19 patients

Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) revealed additional data on remdesivir, its antiviral which is already a front-runner in the treatment of COVID-19, showing that the drug also significantly reduced the death rate in infected patients, with the news sending the biotech firm’s shares up 2.16% to $76.32 by close of trading on Friday.

The data were presented at the Virtual COVID-19 Conference as part of the 23rd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2020: Virtual) and include a comparative analysis of the Phase III SIMPLE-Severe trial and a real-world retrospective cohort of patients with severe COVID-19. In this analysis, remdesivir was associated with an improvement in clinical recovery and a 62% reduction in the risk of mortality compared with standard of care – an important finding that requires confirmation in prospective clinical trials, said Gilead.

Separate subgroup analyses from the Phase III SIMPLE-Severe trial, including an evaluation of the safety and efficacy of remdesivir across different racial and ethnic patient subgroups treated in the USA, found that traditionally marginalized racial or ethnic groups treated with remdesivir in this study experienced similar clinical outcomes as the overall patient population in the study.