Project description:The US Food and Drug Administration is committed to the development of effective antiviral regimens for pediatric patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), including infants and neonates. On April 25, 2022, the approved indication of remdesivir (RDV) was expanded to include pediatric patients 28 days and older and weighing at least 3 kg with positive results of direct severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 viral testing, who are: Hospitalized, or Not hospitalized and have mild to moderate COVID-19 and are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19, including hospitalization or death. Given the similar course of COVID-19 in adults and pediatric patients, the approval of RDV for use in pediatric patients is supported by the safety and efficacy data from adequate and well-controlled phase 3 trials in adults and adolescents; and by the safety and pharmacokinetic data from a single-arm, open-label, phase 2/3 pediatric clinical trial of 53 pediatric patients at least 28 days of age and weighing at least 3 kg with confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection and mild, moderate, or severe COVID-19. At the time of the April 25, 2022, approval action, the US Food and Drug Administration also revoked the emergency use authorization for RDV that previously covered this pediatric population. This article summarizes key issues and regulatory considerations involved in the RDV COVID-19 pediatric development program, including the evolution of the emergency use authorization issued for RDV as results from registrational studies became available, and discusses lessons learned.
Project description:The development, validation, and appropriate application of serological assays to detect antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 are essential to determining seroprevalence of this virus in the United States and globally and in guiding government leadership and the private sector on back-to-work policies. An interagency working group of the US Department of Health and Human Services convened a virtual workshop to identify knowledge gaps and key outstanding scientific issues and to develop strategies to fill them. Key outcomes of the workshop included recommendations for (1) advancing serology assays as a tool to better understand SARS-CoV-2 infection and (2) conducting crucial serology field studies to advance an understanding of immunity to SARS-CoV-2, leading to protection and duration of protection, including the correlation between serological test results and risk of reinfection.
Project description:Background & aimsRemdesivir is a broad spectrum anti-viral drug that has shown to inhibit SARS-CoV-2, in vitro and in vivo. In absence of any effective treatment for SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19), remdesivir has been tried for a compassionate use in severe COVID-19. Newer randomized controlled studies that have recently become available, showed a mixed result. We aimed to systematically search the literature to understand the pharmacology and clinical effects of remdesivir in patients with COVID-19.MethodsWe systematically searched the PubMed, ClinicalTrial.Org and MedRxiv database up till May 5, 2020 using specific key words such as "Remdesivir" or 'GS-5734″ AND "COVID-19" or "SARS-CoV-2" and retrieved all the article published in English language, that have reported the pharmacology and the clinical outcomes of remdesivir in patients with COVID-19.ResultsInitial compassionate use of remdesivir has shown a fairly good result, but difficult to quantify, in the absence of control arm. While the very first double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial conducted in Wuhan, did not find any significant benefit compared to the control, the preliminary result of another similar multi-country trial has shown a significant faster time to recovery but without any difference in mortality.ConclusionsRemdesivir has shown a mixed result in patients with COVID-19 with an acceptable side effect. However, jury is still out while awaiting the results from the forthcoming trials.
Project description:Remdesivir (Veklury®), a nucleotide analogue prodrug with broad-spectrum antiviral activity, is approved for the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the illness caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection. Unlike some antivirals, remdesivir has a low potential for drug-drug interactions. In the pivotal ACTT-1 trial in hospitalized patients with COVID-19, daily intravenous infusions of remdesivir significantly reduced time to recovery relative to placebo. Subsequent trials provided additional support for the efficacy of remdesivir in hospitalized patients with moderate or severe COVID-19, with a greater benefit seen in patients with minimal oxygen requirements at baseline. Clinical trials also demonstrated the efficacy of remdesivir in other patient populations, including outpatients at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19, as well as hospitalized paediatric patients. In terms of mortality, results were equivocal. However, remdesivir appeared to have a small mortality benefit in hospitalized patients who were not already being ventilated at baseline. Remdesivir was generally well tolerated in clinical trials, but pharmacovigilance data found an increased risk of hepatic, renal and cardiovascular adverse drug reactions in the real-world setting. In conclusion, remdesivir represents a useful treatment option for patients with COVID-19, particularly those who require supplemental oxygen.
Project description:Human coronaviruses (HCoV) were discovered in the 1960s and were originally thought to cause only mild upper respiratory tract diseases in immunocompetent hosts. This view changed since the beginning of this century, with the 2002 SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic and the 2012 MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) outbreak, two zoonotic infections that resulted in mortality rates of approximately 10% and 35%, respectively. Despite the importance of these pathogens, no approved antiviral drugs for the treatment of human coronavirus infections became available. However, remdesivir, a nucleotide analogue prodrug originally developed for the treatment of Ebola virus, was found to inhibit the replication of a wide range of human and animal coronaviruses in vitro and in preclinical studies. It is therefore not surprising that when the highly pathogenic SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus emerged in late 2019 in China, causing global health concern due to the virus strong human-to-human transmission ability, remdesivir was one of the first clinical candidates that received attention. After in vitro studies had shown its antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2, and a first patient was successfully treated with the drug in the USA, a number of trials on remdesivir were initiated. Several had encouraging results, particularly the ACTT-1 double blind, randomized, and placebo controlled trial that has shown shortening of the time to recovery in hospitalized patients treated with remdesivir. The results of other trials were instead negative. Here, we provide an overview of remdesivir discovery, molecular mechanism of action, and initial and current clinical studies on its efficacy.