Globally, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had a significant impact on everyone's lives and put a tremendous strain on healthcare systems. Since the outbreak began, remdesivir has been investigated as a potential treatment for COVID-19 that may be both effective and safe. Remdesivir has had a huge impact on the disease's progression, complications, and mortality. This review provides an updated assessment of the literature regarding remdesivir's efficacy and safety for the treatment of patients with COVID-19. The search was performed through PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane, and Scopus for articles published from 2019 to September 20, 2022. Studies that assessed remdesivir's efficacy and safety were included in this review, with clinical improvements as the primary outcome measure. Seventeen studies were identified following the implementation of the search strategy. Among them, 11 corroborated remdesivir's efficacy. Meanwhile, the remaining six studies did not observe a statistically significant difference in clinical improvement. Remdesivir is a potentially safe and effective antiviral that shows clinical improvement especially when used during the early course of the disease. However, current literature still questions its safety in patients who are afflicted with the complications of COVID-19, highlighting the need for studies on a large scale.
Keywords: antiviral drugs; covid-19; efficacy; remdesivir; sars-cov-2 treatment.
Copyright © 2023, Yasir et al.