Thread by @nanogenomic

(1/6) Most drugs are not effective at treating #COVID, and do not address the root-cause symptoms. #Remdesivir is one such example—the drug mimics #RNA, and gets incorporated into the viral RNA transcripts preferentially versus human RNA transcripts.

(2/6) Mechanistically, this drug was promsising. However, in today’s @TheLancet paper, "#Remdesivir in adults with severe #COVID-19: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre trial," findings are inconclusive at best, and damning at worst:

(3/6)
1) The study enrolled already-hospitalized patients with pneumonia, with <94% oxygen saturation, who were already hospitalized
2) They measured clinical improvement for 28 days
3) "#Remdesivir use was not associated with a difference in time to clinical improvement"

(4/6)
4) 66% of #remdesivir patients experienced adverse events, versus 64% of placebo patients; 12% of remdesivir patients had to stop early because of adverse events vs. 5% for placebo patients

(5/6) The very authors conclude that “#remdesivir was not associated with statistically significant clinical benefits. However, the numerical reduction in time to clinical improvement in those treated earlier requires confirmation in larger studies.”

thelancet.com/journals/lance…

(6/6) Anthony Fauci, head of #NIAID at the @NIH is saying that there is "clear-cut" evidence that the drug works.

Is this a market pump-and-dump and to prop up @GileadSciences shares and give false hope in the economy being stable, while people make off with trillions of $$$?