SEOUL, Jul 01 (Yonhap) – South Korea on Wednesday began supplying Remdesivir, a drug used to fight the Ebola virus, to treat patients with the new coronavirus (Covid-19), reported the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).
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Health officials have said the drug developed by the US pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences Inc. will be used for patients with Covid-19 with severe symptoms.
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Patients with symptoms of pneumonia who require oxygen therapy such as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) will be injected with Remdesivir.
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The KCDCs said they had signed an agreement with the American pharmaceutical company, but details of the total quantity and price have not been released.
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“The health authorities will do their best to procure the drug by cooperating with Gilead Science Korea, the local importer, to secure additional quantities of Remdesivir,” said KCDC general manager Jeong Eun-kyeong.
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Last month, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved the use of Remdesivir as a drug to treat Covid-19, allowing it to be imported through a special procedure.
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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States published a report saying that patients with Covid-19 who received treatment with Remdesivir recovered faster compared to patients who received treatment with placebo.
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The first clinical trial in the United States to evaluate the experimental treatment against Covid-19 was carried out in 1,063 patients.
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Preliminary results indicate that patients who received Remdesivir had 31% faster recovery time than those who received placebo treatment, according to NIH.
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