Remdesivir approved as a corona drug

Lisa Vogel studied departmental journalism with a focus on medicine and biosciences at Ansbach University and deepened her journalistic knowledge in the master's degree in multimedia information and communication. This was followed by a traineeship in the editorial team. Since September 2020 she has been writing as a freelance journalist for

More posts by Lisa Vogel All content is checked by medical journalists.

So far there is no vaccine and no approved drug against the coronavirus. The EU Commission has now granted the promising active ingredient remdesivir approval for the European market, subject to certain conditions.

The active ingredient remdesivir is approved in Europe as the first drug for the therapy of Covid-19, subject to conditions. The EU Commission announced the decision on Friday. "Today's approval of a first drug to treat Covid-19 is an important step forward in the fight against the virus," said Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides. The approval was given in the fast-track procedure less than a month after the application.

Remdesivir can shorten the course of the disease

Remdesivir is one of the few effective medicines for severe cases of the lung disease caused by the coronavirus. Studies have shown that it can shorten hospital stays. The European Medicines Agency EMA recommended approval for patients aged twelve and over who have pneumonia and need additional oxygen.

Doctors do not see remdesivir as a panacea, but as a ray of hope for severely affected corona patients. An international study with over 1000 participants showed at the end of April that Remdesivir can reduce the time to recovery in Covid 19 patients by an average of four days - from 15 to eleven days.

USA: Approval since May

The USA had already issued an exemption for the limited use of the active ingredient in hospitals at the beginning of May. In Germany, too, the drug was already available within a compassionate use program and was tested in clinical studies.

The US government announced this week an agreement with the US manufacturer Gilead Sciences, according to which it has bought up practically the entire production volume of the product for the next few months. However, Germany, for example, has already built up supplies. The EU Commission is also negotiating with the manufacturer to secure sufficient quantities of the active ingredient.

Admission requirement: delivery to Europe

The CDU European politician Peter Liese emphasized that the condition for approval in Europe is that the manufacturer also delivers to Europe. One possible solution to bottlenecks would be for Gilead to share its knowledge with other manufacturers and have them produced for license fees. Gilead could also earn a lot of money with this, Liese said on Friday.

Remdesivir was originally developed to treat Ebola, but it was not effective enough. So far, it has not been unrestrictedly approved as a drug in any country in the world. So far there has been no vaccination against the novel coronavirus and no reliable, approved drug therapy. (lv / dpa)

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