Gilead Sciences announced on Sunday that the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention had granted regulatory approval for the coronavirus drug remdesivir. The drug was approved as an emergency medicine to treat those suffering from COVID-19 infection, a statement read.
The approval was given following clinical data obtained in a trial by the US National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Washington authorized the emergency use of the medicine – which was originally intended as a treatment for Ebola – on May 1, followed by several Asian nations including Japan and South Korea.
The green light comes on the recommendation of the European Medicines Agency which gave its conditional authorization last week for the treatment of patients above 12 years of age who are suffering pneumonia and require extra oxygen. It said its assessment was also mainly based on data from the NIAID study. The research, published in the leading journal the New England Journal of Medicine in May, showed that injections of Remdesivir speeded patient recovery compared with a placebo.
On average it reduced patients’ hospital stays from 15 days to 11.
