WHO declines comment on remdesivir in COVID-19, hopes for best

GENEVA (Reuters) – A prime World Health Organization official declined comment on Wednesday on experiences that Gilead Science’s remdesivir may assist deal with COVID-19, the respiratory illness attributable to the novel coronavirus, however stated that additional information was wanted.

“I wouldn’t like to make any specific comment on that, because I haven’t read those publications in detail,” Dr Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s emergencies programme, advised an internet briefing in response to a query, including it may possibly generally take plenty of publications to find out a drug’s efficacy.

“Clearly we have the randomised control trials that are underway both in the UK and US, the ‘Solidarity trials’ with WHO. Remdesivir is one of the drugs under observation in many of those trials. So I think a lot more data will come out,” he stated.

Ryan added: “But we are hopeful this drug and others may prove to be helpful in treating COVID-19.”