FDA approves emergency use of COVID-19 drug being tested in San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved emergency use of a drug being studied by UT Health San Antonio and University Hospital in the fight against COVID-19

The announcement was made Friday afternoon,  two days after the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) released preliminary results of a national clinical trial showing that the new drug, remdesivir, is helping the sickest COVID-19 patients recover more quickly and is preventing deaths.

Dr. Thomas Patterson, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at UT Health San Antonio, is leading the study in collaboration with University Hospital. The trial sponsored by the NIAID is being conducted at more than 75 sites in the United States and a few locations in foreign countries.

“It’s very exciting to be involved in a clinical trial that is moving forward so quickly toward helping patients,” Dr. Patterson said. “This is the first anti-viral drug that has been shown to benefit patients with COVID-19 in a randomized clinical trial.”

With FDA emergency approval,  hospitalized COVID-19 patients who meet the  criteria and consent to the study can now be treated with  remdesivir as the clinical trial moves into what’s called the adaptive phase.

Dr. Patterson said that as other agents are developed, they will be added to remdesivir and evaluated in comparison to remdesivir alone.

“We expect to begin the adaptive phase next week,” Dr. Patterson

Dr. Jason Bowling, the hospital epidemiologist at University Health System and an assistant professor of infectious diseases at UT Health San Antonio, is part of the team that has been working on the remdesivir clinical trials. here’s a link to a video with Dr. Bowling providing more information on what the FDA approval means.https://f.io/2L8_vJWN

 

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