Select NC hospitals receive the drug remdesivir to treat patients with COVID-19
Seven medical centers across North Carolina received a small supply of the drug remdesivir to treat patients with COVID-19 this week.
The medicine has reduced recovery time for patients with COVID-19 up to four days and is administered through an IV.
Gilead Sciences, which developed remdesivir, is donating doses of the treatment to hospitals across the United States. The company sent 400 vials to North Carolina this week for hospitals in Wake County, Orange County, Durham, Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Greensboro and Greenville.
That supply was based on the number of hospitalizations in the state and offers about 36 10-day treatment courses for hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The supplies was distributed to Atrium Health’s Carolinas Medical Center, Moses Cone Hospital, Duke University Hospital, UNC Medical Center, Vidant Medical Center, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and Wake Medical Center.
Those facilities met the qualifications for a High Consequence Pathogen Treatment center and had at least 25 COVID-19 patients in their system, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
The state health department said it expects additional shipments in the next few weeks and is working to develop plans to distribute the treatments to other hospitals. North Carolina has had more than 15,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, about 500 patients are currently hospitalized and more than 600 people have died from COVID-19 as of May 13, according to state and county health departments.
The drug was given to patients with severe symptoms, like breathing difficulties that require supplemental oxygen or a ventilator, in clinical trials.
The antiviral drug was tested in UNC-Chapel Hill labs before showing positive results in human clinical trials. UNC epidemiologist Ralph Baric, who leads that lab at the UNC Gillings School of Public Health, called remdesivir a “game-changer” for treating patients with COVID-19.
This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 5:17 PM with the headline "Select NC hospitals receive the drug remdesivir to treat patients with COVID-19."
