A recent study from the University of Washington in Seattle found that there is no big difference between a five- and 10-day use of remdesivir for people with severe COVID-19 not requiring mechanical ventilation.
The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The lead author is Jason D. Goldman, M.D., M.P.H.
In the study, the team did a phase 3 clinical trial involving hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection, oxygen saturation of 94% or less, and radiologic evidence of pneumonia.
A total of 397 patients were assigned to receive remdesivir for either five or 10 days.
The team found that patients assigned to the 10-day group had much worse clinical status at baseline compared with those randomly assigned to the five-day group.
They found that by day 14, clinical improvement of 2 points or more on the ordinal scale occurred in 64% and 54% of patients in the five- and 10-day groups, respectively.
Patients in the 10-day group had a distribution in clinical status at day 14 that was similar to that among patients in the five-day group after adjustment for baseline clinical status.
The team says in the current era of limited remdesivir supplies, priority should be given to a five-day remdesivir regimen for patients at the early stages of the severe disease since the evidence for benefit is clearest in this population.
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