BEIJING – China will kickstart a phase III trial Feb. 3 to determine whether patients with 2019-nCoV can be treated with Gilead Sciences Inc.’s NUC inhibitor, remdesivir, which was originally developed for Ebola, four days after a U.S. patient was said to have recovered by using the drug candidate.
The study, expected to be completed on April 27, is a phase III randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled multicenter study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of remdesivir in hospitalized adult patients with mild and moderate 2019-nCoV infections. It will enroll 270 patients and be carried out in the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing.
Gilead said it is expediting the laboratory testing of remdesivir against 2019-nCoV samples and working with the Chinese authorities.
Remdesivir is being developed by the U.S. company as a monophosphoramidate prodrug of code GS-441524 that targets viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. It was intended to be an intravenous treatment for Ebola, but it also showed potential against coronavirus and Nipah virus infections.
