Coronavirus treatment update: India starts using Remdesivir in emergency cases of COVID-19. Here is what you need to know

As the number of deadly coronavirus cases rise steeply in the country, officials yesterday allowed the usage of the popular drug, Remdesivir for emergency treatment in critical cases. Till date, there have been over 2,00,000 COVID-19 cases registered in India.

Remdesivir, which is manufactured by pharma giant Gilead Sciences has been hailed as the frontrunner in the treatment of novel coronavirus, as scientists and medical researchers race against time to find a potential cure or vaccine for the same.

In a statement, the Drugs Controller General of India said, "(Remdesivir) approved on June 1 under emergency use with the condition for five dose administration,"

Currently, India is experimenting with the usage of anti-viral medicines and prescription drugs commonly used to treat influenza and other serious diseases. One of the most common ones being used is Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) which has been in the middle of a controversy of late. Several Ayurvedic anti-viral medicines are also being studied as preventive or prophylactic medicine.

Remdesivir, produced by Gilead Sciences, has been leading the race in COVID-19 treatment plans. Ever since the global cases started to surge, the firm got steady approvals by the FDA in America and was also being studied for use in Japan in regulatory clinical trials.

Remdesivir is being touted as one of the most effective treatment plans right now because of its anti-viral properties. Preliminary trials have shown that patients who were prescribed the drug tend to recover faster than those who were given a placebo drug.

It is important to know that any virus, such as SARS-Cov-2 targets the healthy cells and then unloads a series of infections.

Remdesivir belongs to a class of drugs- nucleoside analogue which has been traditionally used and repurposed to treat a host of diseases, infections, viruses, criminal bacteria and parasites.

Now, the reason why remdesivir can prove useful to target coronavirus is that the structure of the medicine closely resembles our body's own nucleoside, which helps host and sync genetic material and plays a big role in the biological make-up. A drug like remdesivir targets this genetic code, modifies it and is able to stop or interrupt viral infection. If used for a longer duration, it can also ultimately help cut down the virus multiplication in the body, protecting the healthy antibodies and purposefully, curbing the viral infection. For the same reason, it is being classified as a type of "direct-acting antiviral" which bug the virus's life cycle and stop it from spreading.

Remdesivir also happened to be the first medicine cleared for coronavirus clinical treatment globally. Lab trials have shown that the drug has also been helpful in the fight against Ebola in the past, which belongs to the same family of viruses like the Coronavirus and was a pandemic which affected population in almost a similar way as the novel coronavirus.

Considered to be a wonder drug, doctors say that remdesivir, if used correctly can help lower the recovery period from 15 days to just 4 short days. The research, which has been done and published in New England Journal of Medicine, is based on data from the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT), sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in the US. It was seen that in a controlled trial, where around a 1000 patients were administered a 10-day course of the drug saw a reduction in the Time To Recovery, as compared to those treated with other medicines.

Even though there are a lot of promising studies which back the use of Remsedivir in a positive way, there are also certain shortcomings which are making experts delve deeper. One of the most recent studies found that remdesivir only showed limited benefit in a large scale trial, and mostly helped patients who were healthy, and had mild to moderate symptoms. Patients who were on ventilator support found no such help from being administered the medicine.

Largely, it still remains to be an experimental drug. A lot more study and extensive research is still needed before we actually pin our hopes on any such medicine in eradicating COVID-19 on a global level.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article should not be considered as a substitute for a physician's advice. Please consult your treating physician for more details.