Remdesivir's clinical trial excites Indian scientists

A University of Chicago hospital participating in a study of the antiviral medication Remdesivir said that it has seen rapid recoveries in patients with coronavirus symptoms.

New Delhi: A Covid 19 clinical trial of antiviral medicine Remdesivir with people having fever and respiratory symptoms has excited the scientists at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). A US-based Gilead Sciences Inc's experimental drug Remdesivir has recently shown rapid recovery of patients with Covid-19 symptoms.

"This virus (Covid19) requires an enzyme polymerase to produce more viruses. Remdesivir does allow usage of this enzyme. Hence it reduces the virus quantity," said Dr Ratan R Gangakhedkar, head of epidemiology and communicable disease at India's apex medical research institute (ICMR) to ETV Bharat in an exclusive interview.

A University of Chicago hospital participating in a study of the antiviral medication Remdesivir has reportedly said that it has seen rapid recoveries in fever and respiratory symptoms, with most of the patients getting discharged from the hospital. However, Gilead said that the recovery data need to be analysed before coming to any conclusion.

The company is expecting results from its other studies by May. Researchers have tried to understand how Remdesivir works, presenting the viral RNA Polymerase of Coronavirus as a target.

"This has been done on an experimental basis. We need to wait and see the final outcome," said Dr Gangakhedkar.

The researchers from the University of Alberta, US and Gilead, studied the drug's effect on the Coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). They found that Remdesivir blocks a particular enzyme that is required for viral replication. Meanwhile, India has also been trying hard to find a vaccine for the Covid 19 pandemic.

"Progress is also reported on vaccine development spanning inactivated virus, antibodies to major antigens, monoclonal and RNA based vaccines. Convalescent plasma therapy has also been initiated on some sites," said Lav Aggrawal, joint secretary in the Union Health Ministry.

He said that the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has progressed into an indigenous synthesis of multiple promising antiviral molecules such as Umifenovir, Favipiravir.

"We have already started clinical testing of samples and now by embarking on the mission to sequence virus strains, we will be better equipped to understand the nature of the virus which has caused the global pandemic," said Dr Sanjeev Khosla, Director of CSIR.

So far, 9000 samples have been sequenced internationally as per Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), a public platform started by the WHO in 2008 for countries to share genome sequence. The genomic resource obtained from the sequencing will also allow the identification of new targets of diagnosis and drugs for Covid-19.

Meanwhile, ICMR has approved 15 commercial kits for detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA by real-time PCR. Officials in ICMR said that these kits have been approved by US-FDA too.