The Efficacy of Remdesivir Drug to Control the Recently Emerged Novel Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2): A Review Study
Humera Batool *
California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences and Psychology (CIBNP), USA.
Mizba Baksh
California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences and Psychology (CIBNP), USA.
Khatja Batool
California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences and Psychology (CIBNP), USA.
Zainab Rafique
California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences and Psychology (CIBNP), USA.
Sibghatullah Shahab
California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences and Psychology (CIBNP), USA.
Ghulam Muhammad Humayun
California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences and Psychology (CIBNP), USA.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Introduction: Remdesivir is among the investigational drugs which show some promising effect against COVID-19, it may be due to its broad-spectrum antiviral action against some RNA viruses. To date very few clinical studies have been conducted on the use of remdesivir to the treatment of COVID-19. The main objective of the present study was, to conduct a review on the effect of Remdesivir to the treatment of COVID-19. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic review on the effect of remdesivir drug to the treatment of COVID-19.
Methodology: We have searched PubMed, for published studies on assessing the effect of remdesivir drug among patients with confirmed COVID-19. The main search terms used were “COVID-19” or “SARS-CoV-2”, “remdesivir”, and “systematic review”.
Results: Only 11 research articles were found eligible for enclosure in this systematic review, among selected studies only two were randomized, placebo-controlled trial of intravenous remdesivir. Data on the efficacy of remdesivir in the patients with confirmed COVID-19 from clinical Phase-III trials are still pending. Recently, in the latter half of May month, results of two hospital based randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III trials studies were reported, both the studies found that remdesivir was efficient in the treatment of patients with confirmed COVID-19. However, Wang et al., (2020) found that remdesivir treatment was not significantly associated with clinical benefits.
Conclusion: From the systematic review, the use of remdesivir to cure patients with confirms COVID-19 was found promising; however, further clinical studies with large patient size need to be considered. The efficacy and safety of remdesivir in the treatment of COVID-19 will require to be emphasized in future research studies.
Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, antiviral drug, remdesivir, treatment.