What is Remdesivir and is the drug really useful in treating COVID-19? All you need to know

The second wave of COVID-19 has resulted in an unprecedented rise in cases. With reports of extreme shortages of ventilator beds, medical oxygen, Remdesivir, Tocilizumab and other important medicines required emergency treatment, the country is experiencing utter chaos and despair.

One drug that is making headlines these days is Remdesivir, with people now resorting to social media to source it and some even coughing large amounts of money to buy it. But why are people so desperately in need or Remdesivir, what does it do, and is it even necessary for COVID-19 treatment? Let us know here.

What is Remdesivir?

Remdesivir is an anti-viral drug that was manufactured in 2014 to fight the Ebola virus and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

Remdesivir is injected intravenously and it subsumes itself into the genetic material of the virus and prevents the replicating enzyme from making new copies of the virus. 

Remdesivir and COVID-19

When the world was struck by the COVID-19 pandemic, the drug was found to be useful in fighting SARS-COV-2 and it was given authorisation for emergency-use. Remdesivir has been used indiscriminately since then which has ultimately led to a severe scarcity of the drug in India.

Dr Neeraj Nischal, additional professor, internal medicine at AIIMS, while speaking to TOI stated most people don’t require the drug for surviving COVID-19 and to think that Remdesivir as a miracle cure for Covid is wrong.

“Use of Remdesivir for treatment of Covid has very specific indications. It is beneficial only in a very small subset (in terms of shortening the time to recovery by approximately five days) of patients early in the disease and on low-flow  oxygen. Outside this group of patients, Remdesivir really is not much better than placebo for Covid,” he said.

Remdesivir was approved as the first drug to treat the virus by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2020. However, WHO says there is still no evidence that the drug is beneficial in treating hospitalised COVID-19 patients.

M. Raja Rao, superintendent of Gandhi Hospital in Telangana, said that Remdesivir should be given only in the first week, along with convalescent plasma, to moderate and severe COVID patients, reported The Hindu.

Who should not be administered Remdesivir?

According to doctors, Remdesivir is not given to those with liver or kidney problems and. It should also not be given to asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients while it is not required to be given to all patients.

Limited supply

In the past weeks, black marketing and hoarding of Remdesivir have been reported and with its scarcity, the government has limited its supply to hospitals. The drug is not supposed to be supplied to wholesale distributors or medical counters and it can not be bought over the counter as well.