Clinical Trial Provides Hope for Treating COVID-19
This Einstein SHOUTout! goes to Dr. Barry Zingman and the outstanding team he has led in a clinical trial of the drug remdesivir. Our Einstein Montefiore researchers represent the only New York site to take part in this important study and their findings contributed to recent news heralding the drug’s ability to reduce recovery time among patients being treated for COVID-19. In particular, it has the potential to help people who have serious lung complications as a result of COVID-19.
View an interview of Dr. ZingmanView an interview of Dr. Zingman, with Sunita Reed, director of multimedia communications, about his promising research with remsdesivir.
On April 29, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) touted results demonstrating that remdesivir can be used to reduce the impact of the disease in some patients. Researchers in the trial reported patients given the drug were able to be discharged from the hospital, on average, after 11 days versus 15 days for those receiving placebo.
The NIH report was followed two days later by an announcement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stating that it had granted remdesivir an emergency use approval.
Known as the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT), the clinical trial was sponsored by the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. It involved a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
Trial participants are hospitalized patients with a laboratory-confirmed novel coronavirus infection and lung complications. Patients in the treatment group are receiving remdesivir intravenously for total of 10 days. Up until the FDA’s emergency use approval, the placebo group received a solution that resembles remdesivir but contains inactive ingredients.
Dr. Zingman is a professor of medicine at Einstein and clinical director of infectious diseases in the Moses division of Montefiore Health System.
Posted on: Thursday, July 23, 2020