NHS gets green light to treat coronavirus patients with Ebola drug remdesivir

May 26, 2020

Matt Hancock today called remdesivir the ‘biggest step forward’ in treating Covid-19 since the outbreak spiralled out of control, after the Ebola drug became the first medicine approved for coronavirus patients in Britain.

The Health Secretary praised the drug, which must be injected by a trained medic, saying scientific studies have already shown promising results and suggest it may speed up people’s time to recovery by four days.

Announcing the approval of the drug in tonight’s Downing Street press conference, he said: ‘This is probably the biggest step forward in the treatment of coronavirus since the crisis begun.

‘These are early steps but we’re determined to support the science and back the projects that show promise. As you can understand, we’ll be prioritising the use of this treatment where it can provide the greatest benefit.’

Adults and teenagers battling severe bouts of Covid-19 will be allowed to get remdesivir if they fit specific criteria, officials announced this morning. Doctors are expected to decide on a case-by-case basis.

This makes the drug, which destroys a part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to stop it reproducing, the closest thing NHS doctors have to a cure or treatment for the life-threatening disease.

Britain’s approval of remdesivir has come more than three weeks after the FDA in the US gave it the green light on May 1, putting the UK weeks behind once again. It was also slower to increase testing capacity.

Japan’s ministry of health also approved the drug – developed by drugs giant Gilead Sciences – on May 8. Britain is now following suit in the face of growing scientific evidence.

Remdesivir – considered the most promising out of a number of antivirals – is expected to be available immediately to critically-ill patients over the age of 12 across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Health Secretary praised the drug in tonight’s Downing Street press conference, saying studies have already shown promising results

Remdesivir may be the closest thing doctors currently have to a cure for the coronavirus, after trials showed it can shave days off patients’ recovery times

Lord James Bethell, Government minister for innovation, said: ‘This shows fantastic progress.

‘As we navigate this unprecedented period, we must be on the front foot of the latest medical advancements, while always ensuring patient safety remains a top priority.

‘The latest, expert scientific advice is at the heart of every decision we make, and we will continue to monitor remdesivir’s success in clinical trials across the country to ensure the best results for UK patients.’

Remdesivir, which is produced by the California-based company Gilead Sciences, has been approved under the Early Access to Medicines Scheme (EAMS).

Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) gave the go-ahead for NHS doctors to use it on people who are seriously ill with COVID-19.

Officials said: ‘Allocation of the drug will be based on expert clinical advice and will take into consideration the situation where it is most likely to provide the greatest benefit.’

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WHAT TREATMENTS ARE AVAILABLE FOR COVID-19 PATIENTS?

Until today there were no drugs that had been approved specifically for the purpose of treating patients with COVID-19.

Doctors have been trying to save people with serious infections by giving them oxygen therapy – such as through masks, or ventilators for the most sick – and generic attempts to manage the infection.

This may include trying to calm down the immune system if it is over-reacting, treating the symptoms such as pain and difficulty breathing, and using antibiotics, antiviral or antifungal drugs to prevent secondary infections and to try and boost the immune system.

For many, it is a case of experimenting and hoping for the best.

The MHRA’s green light means the drug can be used before it has been officially licensed for prescription.

Usually, drugs have to go through lengthy testing and approval processes which take into account large amounts of scientific evidence and cost-effectiveness.

Remdesivir is the first medication to get approval for use outside of a clinical trial in the UK.

It is an anti-viral drug that works by crippling an enzyme called RNA polymerase, which is vital for the virus to reproduce and spread. By damaging this, the drug may be able to stop the coronavirus in its tracks.

Dr Stephen Griffin, a medicine professor at the University of Leeds, welcomed the news that it was now available and said it is ‘perhaps the most promising direct-acting antiviral drug’.

He said: ‘The drug mimics the building blocks used by both our own cells and SARS-CoV2 to build new genomic material, yet it is only recognised by the viral machinery concerned with this process, so causing profound disruption to this essential viral process.

WHICH COUNTRIES HAVE APPROVED REMDESIVIR FOR TREATING COVID-19?

Japan’s ministry of health also approved the drug – developed by drugs giant Gilead Sciences – on May 8. Britain is now following suit in the face of growing scientific evidence.

‘Rolling out remdesivir… will likely mean that the most severe COVID-19 patients will receive it first.

‘Whilst this is clearly the most ethically sound approach, it also means that we ought not to expect the drug to immediately act as a magic bullet.

‘We can instead hope for improved recovery rates and a reduction in patient mortality, which we hope will benefit as many patients as possible.

‘More pronounced benefit is likely to be seen when treating patients with less severe disease, ideally before they require invasive respiratory support, but this will only follow once the drug is more widely available and will be guided by the final outcomes of ongoing placebo-controlled trials.’

Dr Griffin added that the fact remdesivir must be injected means it will probably never be used by the general public to prevent infection.

Other drugs which work against the coronavirus in different ways are being used on NHS patients are part of clinical trials, but these are much less available.

Only limited numbers of people can be enrolled in trials and only certain people – usually otherwise healthy patients – are eligible for them.

For those who do make it onto trials there is often still a 50/50 chance that they get a placebo – a fake drug – anyway.

The two major clinical trials under way in Britain are named Recovery and REMAP-CAP.

On Recovery, which is being led by the University of Oxford but taking place across the country, patients may be given one of the following drugs:

Lopinavir-Ritonavir (normally used to treat HIV)
Dexamethasone (a steroid)
Azithromycin (pneumonia; Lyme disease; chlamydia)
Tocilizumab (rheumatoid arthritis)
Hydroxychloroquine (malaria prevention; lupus; rheumatoid arthritis)

Doctors are also testing whether people benefit from a treatment called convalescent plasma, in which patients are given part of the blood of someone who has already recovered from the virus.

This, it is hoped, could introduce the antibodies – disease-fighting substances – needed to fend off the disease and bypass the body’s own process of developing them, which takes weeks after infection.

It is less clear which medicines are being used in the REMAP-CAP trial, which is described as an ‘adaptive’ trial meaning the treatments used change over time.

Britain’s good news comes alongside a blow to global hopes of finding a cure after the World Health Organization announced it was suspending a trial of chloroquine.

The anti-malarial drug, which has caused a storm since US President Donald Trump revealed he is taking it regularly to try and protect himself, was one of the first to show promise.

But it is known to cause heart problems in large doses, and appears to be ineffective against COVID-19 in small doses.

Director of the WHO Dr Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus announced the suspension yesterday after a study published in The Lancet suggested COVID-19 patients might be more likely to die if given the drug.

Professor Trudie Lang, at the University of Oxford, said: ‘The WHO temporarily halting the use of chloroquine in COVID-19 clinical trials highlights why we need to run carefully designed clinical trials during outbreaks.

‘This enables us to learn as quickly as possible about whether potential therapies can tackle the virus and are safe. Properly designed and managed clinical trials are the only way we can see whether drugs might also cause harm. They are designed to assess the safety of the drug relative to the ability to bring any benefit.’

NHS gets green light to treat coronavirus patients with Ebola drug remdesivir

WHAT TREATMENTS ARE AVAILABLE FOR COVID-19 PATIENTS?

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WHICH COUNTRIES HAVE APPROVED REMDESIVIR FOR TREATING COVID-19?

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WHAT TREATMENTS ARE AVAILABLE FOR COVID-19 PATIENTS?

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WHICH COUNTRIES HAVE APPROVED REMDESIVIR FOR TREATING COVID-19?

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