COVID-19 Update for 4/13/2020

Remdesivir
 
Data from 53 patients hospitalized for severe COVID-19 pneumonia and treated with remdesivir through a compassionate use program demonstrated clinical improvement in 68% of patients 18 days after treatment initiation, with 47% discharged and 7% died. At 28 days there was clinical improvement or discharge from the hospital in 84% of patients. Adverse reactions were reported in 60% of patients with the most common being increased hepatic enzymes, diarrhea, rash, renal impairment, and hypotension. 
 
Hyperimmune Globulin
 
The FDA has provided guidance to health care providers and investigators on the administration and study of convalescent plasma collected from individuals who have recovered from COVID-19.
 
General Treatment Guidelines
 
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) has published treatment guidelines for COVID-19. The guideline reviews data for hydroxychloroquine/chloroquine with and without azithromycin, lopinavir/ritonavir, corticosteroids, tocilizumab, and convalescent plasma. The writing panel rated available data to provide a low level of certainty on use as treatments, and recommended that use should be done in the context of a clinical trial. When clinical trials are not feasible, IDSA recommends that registries be established to help in the evaluation of the efficacy and safety of the drugs.
 
Prescribe Right COVID-19 Drug Tracker
 
We have added 3 drugs to the tracker:

• A COVID-19 monoclonal antibody from the Chinese company, Brii Biosciences
• CYNK-001, an allogeneic, natural killer cell therapy derived from placental hematopoietic stem cells is being developed by Celularity
• CM4620-IE, a CRAC channel inhibitor that may prevent cytokine storm in severe COVID-19 pneumonia is being developed by CalciMedica​
  

Our COVID-19 Drug Tracker is now monitoring 29 drugs and adding more each week.