Columbus Regional Health has administered an experimental antiviral drug to COVID-19 patients that could help them recover faster.
The drug, called remdesivir, is an intravenous drug that has shown some promise against other coronaviruses in the past and in lab tests against the one causing the current pandemic, the The Associated Press reported.
As of Friday, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, has killed at least 108,000 people in the United States, including at least 39 in Bartholomew County.
CRH officials gave the drug to four COVID-19 patients last month after receiving enough doses for the patients from the Indiana State Department of Health, with the first dose being administered around May 20, said Dr. Raymond Lee Kiser, medical director of hospital care physicians at CRH.
“All of those patients are already home or have recovered,” he said. “Now, that doesn’t mean that they weren’t going to do this without that medication. We can’t personally say this is the wonder drug, but I don’t think we’ve seen any issues with it.”
On May 1, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the intravenous drug made by Gilead Science for hospitalized patients with “severe disease,” such as those experiencing breathing problems requiring supplemental oxygen or ventilators, the The Associated Press reported.
The FDA acted after preliminary results from a government-sponsored study showed that remdesivir shortened the time to recovery by 31%, or about four days on average, for hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
Those given the drug were able to leave the hospital in 11 days on average, versus 15 days for the comparison group.
“It’s not like an antibiotic with bacteria,” Kiser said. “I think it is kind of similar to the oseltamivir, or Tamiflu with influenza in that it probably does help some people. I think it’s one of those drugs that need to be started early.”
Gilead Sciences has committed to supplying approximately 607,000 vials of the experimental drug over through mid-June to treat an estimated 78,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement last month.
In early May, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also announced that it had shipped 38 cases of the drug to Indiana.
As of May 29, state health officials had distributed more than 9,189 vials of remdesivir to hospitals across the state, Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box said during a press briefing on Wednesday.
CRH officials, however, are unsure if they will receive more doses of the drug after administering all but one course of their supply of the drug with the possibility of using the final dose this week.
“We don’t know if we’ll get any more,” Kiser said. “So we don’t know what happens in the fall if this medicine will still be available to us. We’re hoping it is.”
