The billion-dollar question right now is how soon will we have a coronavirus vaccine.
But scientists are also working on treatments for patients who already have the infection. These could save lives and alleviate suffering in the meantime.
One of four drugs being tested in experiments overseen by the World Health Organization is remdesivir. Two-thirds of 53 patients given the drug in a US clinical trial showed signs of improvement.
The trial began when scientists looked at drugs that had shown promise against the Sars or Mers coronaviruses, which killed hundreds of people in 2003 and 2012, the WHO’s chief scientist, Dr Soumya Swaminathan told the BBC.
But she warned that the remdesivir trial had no control group, meaning there were no patients in the experiment who did not take the drug, and therefore no way of comparing the results.
Although scientists hope the initial signs will prove to be correct, Dr Swaminathan explained, there was no way of knowing currently if and by how much the drug benefited patients.
“We’re doing everything we can to speed up enrolment [in the trial] but I think this epidemic is going to be with us some time,” she warned.
