VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Gilead’s drug remdesivir is not recommended for patients hospitalised with COVID-19, regardless of how ill they are, as there is no evidence it improves survival or reduces the need for ventilation, a World Health Organization panel said on Friday.
“The ... panel found a lack of evidence that remdesivir improved outcomes that matter to patients such as reduced mortality, need for mechanical ventilation, time to clinical improvement, and others,” the guideline said.

The advice is another setback for the drug, which grabbed worldwide attention as a potentially effective treatment for COVID-19 in the summer after early trials showed some promise.

At the end of October, Gilead cut its 2020 revenue forecast, citing lower-than-expected demand and difficulty in predicting sales of remdesivir.

The antiviral is one of only two medicines currently authorised to treat COVID-19 patients across the world, but a large WHO-led trial known as the Solidarity Trial showed last month that it had little or no effect on 28-day mortality or length of hospital stays for COVID-19 patients.

The medication was one of the drugs used to treat U.S. President Donald Trump’s coronavirus infection, and had been shown in previous studies to have cut time to recovery. It is authorised or approved for use as a COVID-19 treatment in more than 50 countries.

Gilead has questioned the Solidarity Trial’s results.

“Veklury is recognised as a standard of care for the treatment of hospitalised patients with COVID-19 in guidelines from numerous credible national organisations,” Gilead said in a statement, referring to the drug’s brand name.

“We are disappointed the WHO guidelines appear to ignore this evidence at a time when cases are dramatically increasing around the world and doctors are relying on Veklury as the first and only approved antiviral treatment for patients with COVID-19.”

The WHO’s Guideline Development Group (GDG) panel said its recommendation was based on an evidence review that included data from four international randomised trials involving more than 7,000 patients hospitalised with COVID-19.

After reviewing the evidence, the panel said, it concluded that remdesivir, which has to be given intravenously and is therefore costly and complex to administer, has no meaningful effect on death rates or other important outcomes for patients.

“Especially given the costs and resource implications associated with remdesivir ...the panel felt the responsibility should be on demonstrating evidence of efficacy, which is not established by the currently available data,” it added.

The latest WHO advice comes after one of the world’s top bodies representing intensive care doctors said the antiviral should not be used for COVID-19 patients in critical care wards.

The WHO’s recommendation, which is not binding, is part of its so-called “living guidelines” project, designed to offer guidance for doctors to help them make clinical decisions about patients in fast-moving situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The guidelines can be updated and reviewed as new evidence and information emerges.

The panel said, however, that it supported continued enrolment into clinical trials evaluating remdesivir in patients with COVID-19, which it said should “provide higher certainty of evidence for specific groups of patients”.

The recommendation may raise further questions about whether the European Union will need the 500,000 courses of the antiviral worth 1 billion euros it ordered last month. (Reuters)

The Indonesian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Sweden and the Republic of Latvia, Kamapradipta Isnomo, has submitted credentials to the King of Sweden with special arrangements through the Chief of Protocol of the Swedish Foreign Ministry, Maria Christina Lundqvist.

The handover of credentials on Thursday (19/11) local time marked the official start of Ambassador Kama's diplomatic duties in Sweden.

"Economic diplomacy has become the main goal during my tenure, and hopefully, the business, trade and investment sectors can be further improved between Indonesia and Sweden," said Ambassador Kamapradipta through a written statement from the Indonesian Embassy in Stockholm, Friday.

The ambassador, whose name is often called Kama, conveying warm greetings from the President of the Republic of Indonesia to the King of Sweden Ambassador Kama arrived in Stockholm on 29 October 2020, after being inaugurated as the Indonesian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Sweden and the Republic of Latvia by the President of the Republic of Indonesia on 14 September 2020.

For his assignment period, Kama set a number of priorities which include another focuses on economic diplomacy with the target of increasing RI-Swedish trade as well as increasing research and technology cooperation, especially in joint research and production of the health industry.

He also carries out the task to increase defense cooperation, university cooperation, and increase the number of Swedish tourists to Indonesia.

Ambassador Kama previously served as Director of Socio-Cultural and International Organizations of Developing Countries at the Directorate General of Multilateral Cooperation.

Prior to his assignment to Sweden, he was assigned to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Indonesia to the United Nations in New York and Geneva as well as the Indonesian Consulate General in Melbourne, Australia. (Antaranews)