New COVID-19 drug gets US approval

The United States of America has given approval for the use of Remdesivir, a new drug, to treat Coronavirus patients in the country.

President Donald Trump who disclosed this at the weekend explained that the drug which is manufactured by American pharmaceutical company, Gilead Sciences, showed that patients who took it recovered within eleven days during its trial testing.

Gilead Sciences’ Chief Executive Officer, Daniel O’Day, who was present during Trump’s live announcement, used the occasion “to thank the collaborators that brought remdesivir to this point and many of our people that have ben part of this, in fact, the caregivers”.

He also stated that the company will be donating 1.5 million vials of the intravenous drug.

The emergency use authorisation for remdesivir does not mean that the drug has been given express approval by America’s Food and Drug Administration, FDA. As a matter of fact, the drug has not undergone any thorough review that would then give it the appropriate approval to treat patients. However, doctors can use it to treat patients for now due to the emergency nature of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Researchers have, however, pointed out that remdesivir’s side effects could be as mild as nausea and vomiting, or as severe as liver damage.

Recall that this is not the first time President Trump has been too eager to present a drug as a cure for the deadly virus. Recall that in March, Trump announced that the FDA approved the malaria drug – Chloroquine – as a cure for COVID-19. The FDA later faulted this claim.