Gilead's remdesivir, designed to stymie viral replication, modestly speeds the recovery of COVID-19 patients, according to a new study By Jon CohenScience's COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.A candidate treatment for COVID-19 has shown convincing—albeit modest—benefit for the first time, in a large, carefully controlled clinical trial in hospitalized patients.The infected people who received remdesivir, an experimental drug made by Gilead Sciences that cripples an enzyme several viruses use to copy their RNA, recovered in an average of 11 days versus 15 in patients who received a placebo. “Although a 31% improvement doesn’t seem like a knockout, 100% [success], it is a very important proof of concept,” said Anthony