https://mailchi.mp/39947afa50d2/the-weekly-gist-april-17-2020?e=d1e747d2d8

Early reports of hastened recoveries among patients taking the antiviral drug remdesivir sent manufacturer Gilead Sciences’ stock soaring over 8 percent this morning, and contributing to an overall uptick in the market. The gains came after a scoop by healthcare news site STAT, which obtained a copy of an internal webinar from University of Chicago Medicine, where an infectious disease specialist discussed positive results from their early experience with remdesivir. The system recruited 125 patients into Gilead’s Phase 3 clinical trials for the drug; 113 patients had severe disease. The presenting physician reported rapid reductions in fever and improvements in respiratory symptoms, noting that just two patients had died, and most of the participating patients had already been discharged—on average after just six days, suggesting a long course of drug treatment may not be necessary.

The STAT leak comes on the heels of a NEJM article late last week, which reported clinical improvement of over two-thirds in COVID-19 patients who received remdesivir. Critics were quick to point out  numerous flaws in the study, including lack of a control group, cherry-picking of patients, and the deep involvement of the manufacturer in study design, many of which also apply to the University of Chicago report.

In the thick of the pandemic, doctors and patients’ families are understandably motivated to get very sick patients access to any treatment that may help—but the resulting frenzy following the publication of early results may make it even harder to get good data to understand what works, and what doesn’t.

In the words of one expert, “Fast trials are generally not very interpretable, interpretable trials are generally not fast”. In the search for a “COVID-19 cure”, it’s highly unlikely that any single drug will provide a cure for the viral illness, and the only way we’ll know if a treatment is truly working is to wait for the results of randomized, controlled trials—despite how frustrating it is to muster the patience to do so.