WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration has approved remdesivir as a treatment for the coronavirus.
The move comes less than a week after the World Health Organization published results of a large study that suggested remdesivir did not help hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
A previous study by the U.S. National Institutes of Health found the antiviral drug shortened recovery time by five days, on average. That led to the drug getting emergency use approval in the U.S, as well as many other countries.
The FDA’s decision on Thursday formally approves remdesivir as a treatment option, and makes it the first fully-approved treatment in the U.S.
None of the studies have found the drug can improve survival rates.
Remdesivir is one of the treatments President Donald Trump received when he contracted COVID-19 earlier this month. It is usually given over five days and works by helping to stop the replication of COVID-19 in the body.
