In a major blow to the ongoing Covid beating efforts, a clinical trial monitored by the WHO in 30 countries, including India has revealed that the much-talked about as well as widely prescribed anti-Covid drug Remdesivir neither prevents deaths nor reduces the duration of hospital stay in patients. Expectedly, this has perplexed the global medical fraternity to whom the drug had supposedly emerged as a trusted antidote in pulling out critical patients from the jaws of death. Covid, thus, has proved once more that it is far more lethal than the other viruses of the similar category and much difficult to beat than expected. The sense of desperation had been a steady companion since the beginning and after this ‘new knowledge’, it will increase manifold, only intensifying the yearning for a speedy arrival of the vaccine.
There is no way but to take the findings seriously, not just because it was conducted by the WHO and its affiliated partners, but because of the sheer size of the sample. So far, it is one of the largest international randomized trials for COVID-19 treatments wherein observations were carried on almost 12 000 patients in 500 hospitals in over 30 countries. This is evidently more reliable than the findings arrived at by a key US study involving around 1000 patients  that actually triggered the decision to approve an emergency authorisation of the use of Remdesivir globally, including in India. It is further unsettling to come to terms with the fact that a drug that is quite expensive costing nearly Rs 30,000 for a five-day course has been used over these months, only to learn that it is incapable to deliver results! As per the details now available on WHO website, not only Remdesivir, its other counterparts namely Hydroxychloroquine, Lopinavir/Ritonavir and interferon have also been found ineffective on the overall mortality, initiation of ventilation and duration of hospital stay in hospitalized patients.
Regarding the use of the above four drugs in India, while the combinations like lopinavir/ritonavir had fortunately been stopped in the early days of the pandemic, the combinations of Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine and Interferon have been used quite extensively in treating severe cases. In particular, Remdesivir has been chased after taking the market size of the drug at around Rs 121crore during the recent months. It’s a paradoxical situation now for the medical world who will find it much harder to cope up with the new situation when a set of four drugs at one go has been declared useless and there are unfortunately no immediate replacement as of now.
It will be a blessing if replacement(s) arrive early. But, it’s certainly a jolt for the medical world which was beyond expectation. 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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