Popular biotechnological company Gilead Science Inc’s anti-viral drug Remdesivir which has also been considered as a highly potential treatment for coronavirus has failed its first randomized clinical trial.
As per reports, a Chinese trial showed that the drug had not been successful, according to draft documents accidentally published by the World Health Organization.
Researchers studied 237 patients giving the Remdesivir drug to 158 and comparing their progress with the remaining 79.
Also read: Remdesivir drug shows some positive signs in early coronavirus testing
The antiviral drug also showed significant side effects in some, which meant 18 patients were taken off it.
As per the trial, Remdesivirdid not improve patients’ condition or reduce the pathogen’s presence in the bloodstream.
There were high hopes that Remdesivir could turn out to be an effective solution for the treatment of the deadly coronavirus after a recent study carried out an observational basis and not as a part of a clinical trial showed that Remdesivir can hinder the reproduction of coronavirus to some extent.
The observational study published by the New England Journal of Medicine showed that 68 per cent of COVID-19 patients who have taken Remdesivir on a compassionate-use basis showed some form of improvement in their conditions.
Interest in Remdesivir had been high as there are currently no approved treatments or preventive vaccines for COVID-19.
Trading in the shares of Gilead was halted after they fell 6 per cent when news broke about the trial.