Cedars-Sinai has joined a global effort to test an experimental antiviral drug as a potential treatment for COVID-19. The institution is one of dozens taking part in the clinical trial, sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The goal is to evaluate the efficacy of remdesivir, an investigational drug developed by the biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences Inc., based in Foster City, California.
Remdesivir is a member of a class of antiviral drugs designed to inhibit an enzyme that certain viruses, including the one that causes COVID-19, require for replication. In animal studies, remdesivir has shown signs of counteracting other types of coronaviruses that caused two prior outbreaks of deadly respiratory diseases, known as SARS and MERS, according to Victor Tapson, M.D., Cedars-Sinai site director for the NIH trial.
