Gilead Sciences is expanding clinical trials of its experimental antiviral drug, remdesivir, for the treatment of COVID-19 into several Asian countries outside China, including Taiwan, the US biotechnology company said in a statement.
Starting next month, the drug is to be tested among 1,000 COVID-19 patients at medical centers across Asia, it said.
The studies would assess two dosing durations of remdesivir, administered intravenously.
Photo: Reuters
One of the trials would randomly enroll about 400 patients with severe clinical manifestations of COVID-19 to receive either five or 10 days of remdesivir, while the second trial would involve about 600 patients with moderate clinical manifestations, who would receive five or 10 days of remdesivir or standard care, the statement said.
Taiwan wanted to bring in the antiviral drug by submitting a request for compassionate use, an option that allows the use of an unapproved drug or medical device for treatment outside of clinical trials, National Taiwan University executive vice president Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳), who also serves in the Central Epidemic Command Center, said on Thursday.
However, the request has not been approved due to strict restrictions on exports of such unauthorized medicine by the US Food and Drug Administration, Chang said.
Only a small quantity of the experimental antiviral drug would be available to patients participating in the clinical trials to evaluate its safety and efficacy, he said, adding that Taiwan has obtained Gilead Sciences’ approval to start local trials along with several other Asian countries.
The US drugmaker is to sign a contract with three hospitals — one each in northern, central and southern Taiwan — to conduct the trials, Chang said.
Taiwan’s hospitals are gearing up for the clinical trials, which are expected to start in the middle of next month at the earliest, he said.
Remdesivir is the only therapy that has shown promise for treating COVID-19.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not