FDA Approves Anti-Viral Drug For Outpatient COVID Treatment

With hospitals seeing an overwhelming number of COVID patients, the FDA has approved the use of the antiviral drug remdesivir on an outpatient basis giving doctors a new option in treating mild-to-moderate COVID cases. https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1484692812377567233 From the Washington Post:

Remdesivir, manufactured by Gilead Sciences, was among the first coronavirus treatments authorized in 2020. The drug received full agency approval later that year for people 12 and older. Treatment of younger children is permitted under an emergency use authorization.

The FDA action was welcomed by physicians scrambling to keep covid patients out of the hospital as waves of infections crowd medical facilities.

Among the hurdles for doctors: Two of the three authorized monoclonal antibody treatments are ineffective against omicron; there are shortages of the one antibody drug that still works; and demand for recently cleared antiviral pills sharply exceeds supply.

A study in the New England Journal of Medicine that showed remdesivir  reduced hospitalization and death by 87% when given soon after a coronavirus diagnosis compared with patients who did not get the drug. Under the newly-approved protocol, patients will need to go to a hospital or clinic three days in a row for the intravenous treatment. https://twitter.com/US_FDA/status/1484668901761994757