AWARE and AWAKE

  India’s drug regulatory authority will seek data from US-based Gilead Sciences on the latest finding on the effectiveness of its antiviral drug remdesivir in Covid-19 patients, after the US drug regulator approved it as treatment for the disease. Remdesivir is the first drug to be cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration for treating Covid-19. The formal approval came on Thursday. While the move indicates that the drug is safe and effective for people hospitalised with Covid-19,  India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) wants to assess the data before making a decision. “We will be writing to Gilead Sciences to understand the latest evidence on the effectiveness of the drug. We will then review and assess and take any further decision in this regard,” said a senior official of CDSCO. The antiviral drug, administered intravenously, is already under assessment in India, officials said, in the wake of new evidence by the World Health Organisation (WHO) ...

A WHO panel "will convene next week to look at the totality of the evidence" of the effectiveness of Remdesivir The World Health Organization is preparing its guidelines on the use of the drug remdesivir to treat COVID-19, and should be able to release it in three to four weeks, the WHO's top official for clinical care responses said. "We would anticipate that the guidelines will be available within three to four weeks," Janet Diaz told a news conference. A WHO panel "will convene next week to look at the totality of the evidence" of the effectiveness of the drug, made by Gilead Sciences.