#Roommates, as various proposed COVID-19 vaccinations are set to become available within the next few months, the Food and Drug Administration has taken a preliminary step with its latest approval. The FDA just officially approved the antiviral drug remdesivir as a method to treat COVID-19.
According to @AJCNews, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration confirmed its support for the antiviral drug remdesivir, as it has now been approved as a treatment for COVID-19. Remdesivir is officially the first drug of its kind to receive the federal government’s approval during the ongoing pandemic. Gilead Sciences, the makers of remdesivir, released a statement saying the drug, which is administered intravenously, would only be used in severe cases that required hospitalization.
Remdesivir has been confirmed to shorten COVID-19 recovery times in some patients. It is also the same drug that was recently used to treat Donald Trump when he was hospitalized for three days at Walter Reed Medical Center earlier this month after testing positive for the virus.
Additionally, it’s important to note that the FDA already previously granted an emergency authorization to use remdesivir on COVID-19 patients—but it hadn’t been formally approved until now. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s foremost expert on infectious diseases, previously described remdesivir as “a new standard of care” for coronavirus patients.
Back in August, Gilead stated that it planned to produce more than 2 million doses of the remdesivir by the end of 2020 and “several million more” in 2021. Supplies of the drug and its manufacturing network have increased dramatically since January.
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