The United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has allowed the use of remdesivir on a compassionate-use basis to treat COIVD-19 patients. This article describes the pilot trial of remdesivir on a small group of patients with COVID-19 and its clinical benefits as well as adverse effects. Remdesivir has shown broad-spectrum activity against several viruses. It is a prodrug that is intracellularly metabolized to an analog of ATP, and works by blocking the activity of RNA dependent RNA enzyme required for viral replication (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Similarities between adenosine and remdesivir (adapted from the American Council on Science and Health) A total of 53 patients were involved in the study conducted by Grein J et al., which was an open-label program. Reverse-transcriptase-polymerase-chain-reaction assay was used to confirm SARS-CoV2 infection. On the basis of the oxygen…