More testing required for antiviral treating of COVID-19
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The antiviral drug remdesivir has reportedly helped cure U.S. patients inflicted with COVID-19 in Japan, while some epidemiology experts have warned that it is too early to verify the real effects of the drug.
“The current tests of remdesivir in Japan and the United States seem promising. It is feasible to apply the drug as ‘compassionate medicine’ to patients infected with COVID-19,” said Zhang Zuofeng, professor of epidemiology and associate dean for research at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“However, due to the lack of randomized double-blind clinical trials data, the effects of the drug is not scientifically convincing,” Zhang told Xinhua in an interview on Wednesday.
Although some patients recovered after taking the drug, it was difficult to say it was the drug that helped improve the condition, due to the lack of a control group, said Zhang.
Fourteen Americans, who contracted the virus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship and were treated at Japanese hospitals, received the experimental drug from Gilead Sciences Inc., an assistant surgeon general and lung specialist at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) was quoted by The Wall Street Journal as saying.