Remdesivir diagram
A multicenter study involving a substantial number of minorities indicated that remdesivir supported clinical improvement in the majority of patients.
The hospitalized remdesivir group had an average time to clinical improvement of five days versus seven days for those not receiving the drug. Remdesivir recipients had a 28-day mortality rate of 7.7% compared with a 14% rate for matched controls. The study authors note, however, that this finding was not statistically significant in the time-to-death analysis
Combining remdesivir with corticosteroids did not appear to provide additional benefit.
The study, which was recently published in JAMA, involved 2,483 patients in a five-hospital system in Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.
From that patient pool, 342 participants received remdesivir, with 184 of those individuals also receiving corticosteroids. More than 80.0% of those individuals were minorities.
One weakness to prior research on the drug is the lack of inclusion of Black and Latino participants, who have a COVID-19 mortality rate considerably higher than white individuals.
Developed by Gilead Sciences, Remdesivir was the first FDA-approved drug for COVID-19.
Prior studies investigating the drug have had inconsistent results.