Remdesivir

Remdesivir  (drug)
Interest of	Bryan Ardis
The first FDA-approved drug for treatment of COVID, highly expensive, poor safety profile, promoted by Anthony Fauci. US hospitals were paid to use it on patients, although it did not improve recovery rates.

“WHO has issued a conditional recommendation against the use of remdesivir in hospitalized patients, regardless of disease severity, as there is currently no evidence that remdesivir improves survival and other outcomes in these patients.”
WHO (20 November 2020) 

Remdesivir is a drug developed by Gilead Sciences and promoted by Anthony Fauci for COVID-19. It was the first FDA-approved drug for treatment of COVID, although multiple studies have failed to show any statistically significant effect on fatality, expect in the other direction, as it quickly shuts down kidney functions, which again leads to pulmonary edema. This iatrogenic effect drives up death rates in COVID-patients, and is used to declare a pandemic. It was reportedly taken by Donald Trump in October 2020.

Origins

The drug was developed with US government grants. Mint Press News quoted a figure of $70 million, other estimates range as high as $6.5 billion.

2020 Efficacy claims

In June 2020 a trial was published of 61 patients with Covid-19 who were given a 10-day course of remdesivir. The results of that trial noted “12 patients (23%) had serious adverse events. The most common serious adverse events — multiple-organ-dysfunction syndrome, septic shock, acute kidney injury, and hypotension … Four patients (8%) discontinued remdesivir treatment prematurely: one because of worsening of pre-existing renal failure, one because of multiple organ failure, and two because of elevated aminotransferases, including one patient with a maculopapular rash.

A study used by Gilead suggested that the drug did not affect the COVID case fatality rate, but reduced the average hospital visit for COVID-19 patients from 15 days to 11 days when compared to a placebo.

Growing doubts

In July 2020 "There have been rising global concerns about the haste to rely on remdesivir before its efficacy is proven, particularly that the results of published trials show that it has no therapeutic benefits of statistical significance."

Paul Marik, author of the EVMS Covid-19 Critical Care Protocol, called remdesivir a “particularly useless drug”.

Pricing

In 2020 developers Gilead charged from $2,340 to $3,120 for a five day course of the drug. US hospitals were given $2400 plus a 20% bonus, in total $3000, from the US government as a financial incentive to use it.

Congo Ebola trial

In 2018, Remdesivir was trialed in Congo against Ebola Patients of any age, including pregnant women, were eligible if they had a positive result with the PCR method and if they had not received other investigational agents (except experimental vaccines) within the previous 30 days. Newborns who were 7 days of age or younger were eligible if the mother had a positive PCR result. Remdesivir had a death rate of 53.1%, much more than the other experimental drugs trialed.

Resources

• Interview with Dr Ardis about Remdesivir

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