Drug Company Tests Remdesivir’s Inhaled Version as Potential Treatment for COVID-19

As researchers review the effectiveness of the drug to fight COVID-19, others are seeking to make probable treatment simpler to manage. Specifically, Gilead Sciences, an American biopharmaceutical firm, is soon starting to try remdesivir's inhalable version.

Remdesivir is an antiviral medicine that has shown potential as a treatment for COVID-19 in early trials. This was based on a statement the company released on Monday.

In addition, remdesivir is presently administered intravenously, which limits its use to hospital backgrounds. According to a pulmonologist, Dr. Mangala Narasimhan, also the critical care medicine director at Northwell Health, "That has been the restriction."

Therefore, based on the report of The New York Times, the inhalable version of Gilead for COVID-19 treatment would be given through a nebulizer, "a device that delivers a mist of therapeutic liquid into the airway" which asthma patients frequently use.

More Convenient Treatment

Some nebulizers are designed portable. Relatively scientists from Gilead are hoping for a more convenient therapy that patients would use at different phases of infection. 

Columbia University virologist, Angela Rasmussen said, Nebulizers are typically more frequently available "compared with IV equipment."

Rasmussen added, pretty much, each outpatient emergency clinic has nebulizers. This means one can treat another person "on the spot" who gets tested positive for COVID-19, whether he experiences the symptoms or not.

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To Start Trial of Remdesivir as an Inhaled Version of Treatment

At present, remdesivir is the lone drug given to a patient, "intravenously through infusions." It is also the only drug with an "emergency use authorization" that came from the US Food and Drug Administration to treat COVID-19 contagions.

On Monday, the company's chairman and CEO, Daniel O'Day, said via an open letter, after they received the go-signal from the FDA to push through with the trial, Gilead was set to start trying remdesivir's inhaled version.

To conduct the trial, O'Day said, they would have healthy volunteers undergo screening "for Phase 1 trial this week." In addition, come August, they also hope to start studying patients with COVID-19.

Should the trials turn out to be a success, O'Day elaborated, this could exemplify significant development. Additionally, Gilead's antiviral drug is presently intravenously administered to patients through daily distillations in hospitals.

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The Inhaled Formulation through Nebulizer

As mentioned, this inhaled formulation of remdesivir would be administered through the use of a nebulizer, which could permit for simpler handling and administration outside the hospital at the disease's earlier phase.

O'Day's letter also explained other plans of studying remdesivir for COVID-19 treatment earlier in the illness's development, combined with other therapies, as well as in additional patient groups. Last week, the company announced it would start trials of the medicine in advance in children.

According to reports, remdesivir was evaluated as a probable treatment for the Ebola virus. However, laboratory experiments disclosed that it might also be useful with COVID-19.

Gilead's letter on Monday noted that the firm is anticipating to achieve over two million treatments through remdesivir manufactured by year-end, "and many millions more by next year."

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