Coronavirus Update: Remdesivir Credited With Saving Patient At Hollywood Regional Memorial Hospital
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the green light Friday for emergency use of Remdesivir, an experimental drug that appears to help some coronavirus patients recover quicker.
"It's early days on coronavirus," said Daniell O'Day, Chairman, and CEO of Gilead Sciences, the pharmaceutical company that makes Remdesivir. "This is the first step today."
It could be a major breakthrough. In clinical trials, the drug has been shown to reduce the amount of time it takes patients to recover from the virus, reducing the recovery time from 15 days to 11 days.
At the White House Friday afternoon O'Day said the company is ramping up production and plans to donate 1.5 million doses.
"There are patients out there that can benefit from this medicine today that are hospitalized and we don't want any time to waste for that," O'Day said.
The drug appears to inhibit COVID-19 from replicating, according to Dr. Jose Castro, an infectious disease expert at the University of MIami.
"It blocks the reproduction of the virus, so the virus is not effective making new copies," Castro told CBS 4 News, adding that he did not participate in the first round of clinical trials on the drug.
And results are being seen from the use of Remdesivir, even in South Florida. Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood is one of three Florida hospitals that are part of a national clinical trial of the drug.
One of the patients, Benjamin Broomfield, 66, left the hospital to cheers after surviving a life-and-death struggle with the virus.
"Right now it feels strange," Broomfield said. "It's like the day the earth stood still. All I remember is the 6th and after that, I don't remember anything."
His family believes getting the experimental drug Remdesivir made the difference. They said his lungs were 80% blocked and he was on a ventilator.
"The very first time they gave it to him, the next morning when we got the report back, he was already improving," said Vince Broomfield, his brother.
His family is thrilled to have Ben back home.
"We won the lottery because family is everything to the Broomfield's. We're a very, very close-knit family," said sister Dee Dee Wilde.
Memorial Regional Hospital doctors believe Remdesivir could set a new standard of care.
"The hope would be that these studies will set the foundation for the science and in the future, this drug may also be available to other patients in earlier stages of the disease so even more patients can benefit," said Dr. Ari Sareli.
The hospital has applied to use it at their other locations.
Meantime, the Broomfield family, a longtime musical family cannot wait for Ben's full recovery.
"I can't wait for him to just to hit that first note with the guitar because he's the musical one that started everything," said sister Carol Guidoni.
"I believe with all my heart that he was going to get well, not only because somehow miraculously he was able to take the Remdesivir, but also because of the power of the prayer of his family," said sister-in-law Diane Trivelli.
Ben cannot wait to get back to his music. His family is hoping, others suffering from the coronavirus can get the same benefit from Remdesivir, including his son, who is hospitalized with COVID-19 at another Memorial facility.
Experts caution that Remdesivir is not a cure for COVID-19 and that more research and study needs to be done.
"This drug is not perfect," Dr. Castro said. "Less people die, more people recover but people still die."
However, he said that the drug's benefits might mean less virus in the body to attack other cells and less virus that can be contagious. And, at this point, it's success in trials is a reason for cautious optimism.
"Patients who were on this medication had a better chance to survive than patients who were not on this medication," he said.
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