Prognosis

Gilead Virus Drug Is Cleared for Emergency Use by FDA

Drug to be used in hospitalized patients with severe virus
Gilead is donating 1.5 million doses of the drug remdesivir

One vial of the drug Remdesivir lies during a press conference about the start of a study with the Ebola drug Remdesivir in particularly severely ill patients at the University Hospital Eppendorf (UKE) in Hamburg, northern Germany on April 8, 2020, amidst the new coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.Photographer: ULRICH PERREY/AFP

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By Drew Armstrong, Justin Sink, Anna Edney, and Michelle Fay Cortez

May 1, 2020 at 3:46 PM EDT

Updated on

May 1, 2020 at 5:32 PM EDT

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Gilead Sciences Inc.’s antiviral drug remdesivir was cleared by U.S. regulators for emergency use in Covid-19 patients, becoming the first medication backed by early clinical data to be made available to fight the novel coronavirus.

Remdesivir reduced the time it took hospitalized Covid-19 patients to recover in an interim analysis of an ongoing study.The Food and Drug Administration granted an emergency-use authorization, President Donald Trump said on Friday, a step by which the agency can allow products to be used without full data on their safety and efficacy.

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