Remdesivir has been shown to speed up recovery times for patients with Covid-19 in a major US-led trial, becoming the first drug with proven benefit against the disease.
Here is what you need to know. What is remdesivir? Remdesivir is an experimental, broad spectrum antiviral made by US pharmaceutical Gilead Sciences that was first developed to treat Ebola, a viral hemorrhagic fever.
It showed early promise in a primate study in 2016 and was later rolled out for a major trial in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it was compared against three other medicines.
That study concluded in 2019 when it was discontinued because it did not boost survival rates as greatly as two monoclonal antibody drugs, which are lab-engineered immune system