87% lower risk of severe COVID-19 in remdesivir trial

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-12-23 09:00

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Remdesivir is known to help people in hospital with COVID-19 but a new study has looked at the effects on less severe cases. Taking remdesivir intravenously for three days led to an 87% lower risk of hospitalisation or death than an inactive placebo for infected people who were not in hospital but were at high risk for disease progression. In this US trial, only two remdesivir patients (0.7%) were hospitalised or died from COVID-19, compared to 15 (5.3%) in the placebo group. The research team says the medication appeared safe, with slightly fewer adverse events than placebo.