Gilead surges after report suggests COVID-19 patients responding to remdesivir

(Reuters) – Shares of Gilead Sciences Inc soared 15% on Thursday after a media report suggested that severe COVID-19 patients were positively responding to the drugmaker’s experimental treatment remdesivir.

A Chicago hospital treating COVID-19 patients with the antiviral medication as part of a trial is seeing rapid recoveries in fever and respiratory symptoms, with nearly all patients discharged in less than a week, according to medical news website STAT https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/16/early-peek-at-data-on-gilead-coronavirus-drug-suggests-patients-are-responding-to-treatment.

There are other trials being run concurrently at other institutions.

There are currently no approved treatments for COVID-19, the highly contagious respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus that has infected over 2 million people worldwide.

Gilead did not immediately respond to request for comment.

(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru)