hankyoreh

Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) Deputy Director Kwon Jun-wook gives a briefing in Osong, North Chungcheong Province, on May 5. (Yonhap News)

South Korea’s disease control authorities said that while the Ebola drug remdesivir may help mitigate the symptoms of patients with severe cases of COVID-19, it’s not effective enough to be administered broadly to all patients.

The decision on whether and how it will actually be used is to be made after a careful examination of the results of clinical trials currently underway in South Korea and overseas.

“To make a determination of remdesivir’s efficacy, we’re planning to solicit opinions from an expert panel, including the members of the central clinical committee who are taking part in clinical trials,” said Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) Deputy Director Kwon Jun-wook in a regular briefing on May 5 at the KCDC headquarters in Osong, North Chungcheong Province.

A production line for the Ebola drug remdesivir, which has been approved in the US for treating COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms. (Hankyoreh archives)

“As disease control authorities, we look forward to remdesivir reducing hospitalization times and fatality rates for patients with severe symptoms, but our understanding is that this does not mean it can reduce transmissibility through administration to all patients like Tamiflu at the time of the novel influenza outbreak,” he cautioned.

Remdesivir is an antiviral agent developed by the US pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences as a treatment for the Ebola virus. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted approval for its emergency use on May 1 after early clinical trials in the US demonstrated limited effectiveness in treating the novel coronavirus. The approval allows for its use only in the treatment of patients with severe symptoms rather than all coronavirus patients. At the time, US Vice President Mike Pence said the medication would be provided to patients with severe symptoms as of May 4.

In response, disease control authorities and experts in South Korea have also been focusing on the clinical trial findings and trends in approval for use overseas. Kwon explained, “The situation was discussed yesterday by a pan-government working-level team to support the early development of a vaccine and treatments for the COVID-19 virus, and a related expert meeting was organized by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.”

South Korean experts are currently participating in or conducting three sets of clinical trials. If the treatment’s efficacy is proven and special import provisions in the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act are applied, importation into South Korea will become possible without domestic product approval or reporting.

By Choi Ha-yan, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]