2 March 2022
remdesivir has a significant antiviral activity, reducing the amount of viral particles released by infected cells
The use of remdesivir has been associated to contradictory virological and clinical results in the past months. Here, we analyzed its effect on viral dynamics in the DisCoVeRy trial, where 665 patients were randomized to either standard of care (SoC) or SoC + remdesivir. We used a mathematical model to reconstruct virological profiles and to estimate the antiviral efficacy of remdesivir in reducing viral production.
Using this model, we showed that remdesivir has a significant antiviral activity, reducing the amount of viral particles released by infected cells by a 2-fold factor on average. Remdesivir had a larger impact in patients with high viral load at randomization, reducing viral production by 5-fold on average.
In conclusion our results reconciliate the contradictory findings of the literature, demonstrating that remdesivir has an antiviral activity, albeit too limited to generate, as a monotherapy, a clinical effect.
Source:
Effect of remdesivir on viral dynamics in COVID-19 hospitalized patients: a modelling analysis of the randomized, controlled, open-label DisCoVeRy trial
Guillaume Lingas, Nadège Néant, Alexandre Gaymard, Drifa Belhadi, Gilles Peytavin, Maya Hites, Thérèse Staub, Richard Greil, Jose-Artur Paiva, Julien Poissy, Nathan Peiffer-Smadja, Dominique Costagliola, Yazdan Yazdanpanah, Florent Wallet, Amandine Gagneux-Brunon, France Mentré, Florence Ader, Charles Burdet, Jérémie Guedj, Maude Bouscambert-Duchamp, DisCoVeRy study group
The Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
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