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Vermont received 200 doses this week of the first drug to show promise in treating Covid-19 patients.
That’s enough remdesivir, the experimental drug, to treat 18-33 hospitalized patients. And Health Commissioner Mark Levine said Friday that a second shipment from the federal government is on its way.
“I can tell you that the quantity we’ve received will already treat far more than the number of patients that are currently in our hospitals with Covid-19,” he said.
Clinicians will now be able to treat patients hospitalized with “severe” cases of Covid-19 with the drug under federal Food and Drug Administration’s emergency approval, Levine said. While the first shipment is being stored in a refrigerator at the state Department of Health, Levine wants future shipments to go directly to hospitals.
“I really want this drug to be available at the point of care so it’s available when needed,” he said.
Lindsay Smith, an infectious disease physician at the UVM Medical Center Center, said in an interview Thursday that she is excited to soon have access to remdesivir as it is the “only drug that has shown some promise” in improving patient outcomes.
“But I’m still reserving judgment until all the data is published and I can review it,” added Smith, who heads the UVM Health Network’s Covid-19 therapeutic drug working group.
Animal studies have shown that remdesivir, which works by blocking the virus’ reproduction, appears most effective when given early in an infection.
The “crucial bit of data that everybody is still anxiously awaiting” is whether it would be better to give the drug to patients with mild to moderate cases of Covid-19, or those who have a more severe form of the disease, said Smith.
“If you’re already intubated and have multiple different organ systems that have been damaged from the virus, is giving an antiviral going to do much?” she said. “Or has the damage been done, and you just need supportive care to get you through that period?”
Vermont has managed to contain its coronavirus outbreak better than almost any other state in the country. The Scott administration has chalked this up to residents’ adherence to social distancing, and the state being small and rural. As of Friday, the state had 933 confirmed cases and 53 deaths, with three people currently hospitalized.
“If the drug does turn out to be promising, and we can keep the numbers low, then we’ll have the drug available for those patients who need it,” Smith said.
Remdesivir is a broad-spectrum antiviral drug developed by California-based biotech company Gilead Sciences. The drug, originally looked at to treat Ebola, is still in the experimental phase.
The FDA granted emergency authorization for doctors to treat Covid-19 patients with remdesivir after an early federal study showed signs that the drug could speed recovery times.
“Although a 31% improvement doesn’t seem like a knockout 100%, it is a very important proof of concept,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, when announcing the trial results, Nature reported. “What it has proven is that a drug can block this virus.”
But the National Institute of Health’s decision to cancel that trial early, and to not release its findings in full, raised concerns among some doctors who would like more information on whether the drug saves lives. While fewer patients treated with remdesivir died in that trial, the difference was not statistically significant.
Gilead donated over 600,000 doses of the drug to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to give out to states. Like many aspects of the federal government’s pandemic response, the remdesivir distribution did not go smoothly, with some states receiving less than they’d requested and others receiving more than they needed.
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