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Remdesivir has 'little or no effect' in treating severe COVID-19 cases, WHO says

Agency says 3 other drugs also have no effect
Remdesivir has 'little or no effect' in treating severe COVID-19 cases, WHO says
Posted at 8:20 AM, Oct 16, 2020
and last updated 2020-10-16 09:20:46-04

GENEVA — The U.N. health agency says the world’s largest randomized trial of COVID-19 treatments found “conclusive evidence” that remdesivir, a drug used to treat U.S. President Donald Trump when he fell ill, has little or no effect on severe cases.

The World Health Organization has announced long-awaited results of its six-month “Solidarity Therapeutics Trial” that endeavored to see if existing drugs might have an effect on the coronavirus.

The study, which was not peer-reviewed, found that four treatments tested — remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir and interferon — had “ little or no effect on 28-day mortality or the in-hospital course of COVID-19 among hospitalized patients.”

Remdesivir was the only drug of the four that had not largely been ruled out as ineffective in fighting COVID-19.