A study of clinical outcome and safety profile of remdesivir in COVID-19 patients in a tertiary care centre

ABSTRACT

Introduction: COVID 19 disease has wrecked a havoc as pandemic in the entire world. It causes cardiac manifestations, digestive system disturbances, and adversely affecting other organs. As a result, ardent efforts are underway to find effective antiviral treatments targeting possible mechanisms to identify a specific medication for the disease to curb its progression and to prevent patients sufferings, one such therapy being injectable antiviral treatment namely, Remdesivir. Objectives: To evaluate the clinical outcomes and safety profile of Remdesivir in COVID-19 patients in a tertiary care center. Methods: An observational retrospective cohort study was planned with sample size of 210 patients suffering from active moderate to severe COVID 19 disease admitted in a single center tertiary care hospital requiring injectable anti-viral therapy that is Remdesivir. Patient data was collected from the case record forms. Primary outcomes in terms of length of hospital stay, duration of treatment with Remdesivir, survival rate in patients on Remdesivir and assessment of the days for the COVID 19 positive test to eventually become negative in patients and secondary outcome in terms of safety were evaluated. Results: There was a clinically significant improvement in the SPO2 levels from the time of admission till discharge. The appearance of adverse effects was taken as the secondary outcome. Hepatic and renal toxicity was observed after completion of treatment whereas no immunological abnormalities were observed. Conclusion: Until stronger evidences come to the fore, we cannot derive substantial inference that our injectable antiviral therapy drug namely, Remdesivir is efficacious for treating COVID-19.