Remdesivir: Gilead Wants More Profits! Initiates Clinical Trial Of Inhaled Remdesivir For Less-Severe COVID-19 With Hopes That Trump Admin Will Support It Again
Source: Remdesivir Jul 12, 2020 4 years, 5 months, 1 week, 3 days, 16 minutes ago
Remdesivir: Pharma giant Gilead Sciences wasted no time beginning testing of an inhaled formulation of its COVID-19 drug remdesivir for mild and less severe COVID-19 patients with the hope that the US FDA and Trump administration will support its approval again and buy up overpriced stocks once again with tax payers monies. We are not sure what basis the inhaled version of the drug will be approved by the US FDA this time, maybe as long as it turns patients red when they know about the drug prices as the last time the approval for the injectable version was based the mere observation that it reduced hospitalization period by about 4 few days. There are no detailed safety studies of the drug to date nor are there any true studies to show how it actually works on the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus but many unethical researchers and journals are being bought up by big pharma money these days and will come up with anything.
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-controversies-researchers-from-establishment-famed-for-fraud-and-deceit-publishes-study-showing-that-remdesivir-has-efficacy-against-sars-c and also
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/generic-remdesivir-while-americans-have-to-pay-up-to-us$3120-for-gilead%E2%80%99s-remdesivir,-price-war-in-india-has-led-prices-dropping-to-below-us$50
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Only two weeks after securing an FDA go-ahead, the biotech said it had kicked off a phase 1b trial to evaluate the safety of inhaled remdesivir in 60 healthy volunteers in the U.S.
They claim that their hope is that the inhaled formulation as compared with the drug’s currently available intravenous form could reach the outpatient setting, where patients have less severe disease, and that early treatment could help them avoid hospitalization.
A ‘half-baked’ ACTT-1 study conducted by the National Institutes of Health said that intravenous remdesivir already showed it could cut recovery time by four days, or about 31%, among hospitalized patients. But its benefits appear less significant for patients with mild or moderate disease.
However, Gilead argues that delivering the antiviral directly to the lungs, where the viral infection is worst, might lead to better outcomes for early-stage COVID-19 patients who don’t need to be hospitalized.
Gilead’s chief medical officer, Merdad Parsey, told media, “Based on current scientific understanding, the upper respiratory tract is the most prevalent site of SARS-CoV-2 infection early in disease.”
Then there’s the safety concern. In the ACTT-1 trial, some patients who got intravenous remdesivir experienced side effects such as anemia, acute kidney injury and elevated liver enzymes an indicator of liver damage though none of them seemed to be much more frequent than the rates seen in the placebo group. Nevertheless, Gilead hopes inhaled remdesivir could reduce th
e side-effect burden.
Parsey calimed, “Delivering remdesivir directly to the primary site of infection with a nebulized, inhaled solution may enable more targeted and accessible administration in non-hospitalized patients and potentially lower systemic exposure to the drug. What more, while intravenous infusion by a healthcare practitioner may work in the inpatient setting, outpatient care requires a more convenient administration method.”
GlobalData analyst Angad Lotay however noted in a recent analysis, the inhaled formulation has its own hurdles, including cost and practicality.
Lotay commented, “Although there are chronic conditions that permit training to reconstitute medication for self-administration by injection or nebulizer, it is uncommon to see this in acute infections without the assistance of trained staff. Supplying equipment to each patient would certainly raise concerns regarding costs and supply, which would bare a significant barrier.”
The pharma giant Gilead didn’t immediately respond to Thailand Medical News request for clarification on whether the inhaled version can be self-administered by patients at home or still requires doctor’s supervision.
Aside from the inhaled formulation, Gilead has also said it will test the IV version in outpatient settings such as infusion centers and nursing homes. A clinical trial for children is being planned. Combination studies with other overpriced anti-inflammatory agents including Roche’s Actemra and Eli Lilly’s Olumiant are also underway.
It seems that someones’ relations and friends from the Trump’s administration could be making big money from all this remdesivir deals but American media is yet to make any coverage on this.
Meanwhile, Australian researchers are conducting a very detailed and transparent trial on the usage of a cheaper asthma inhaler containing Budesonide to treat COVID-19 in initial stages. The drug only cost less than US$4 in Thailand per inhaler with 120 doses!
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-drugs-queensland-university-of-technology-and-oxford-university-exploring-budesonide-inhaler-therapy-for-early-covid-19-patients-in-new-trial
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