9 October 2020 - - The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) has published the final results from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' (NIAID) double-blind, placebo-controlled, Phase 3 ACTT-1 trial of US-based biopharmaceutical company Gilead's (NASDAQ: GILD) investigational antiviral Veklury (remdesivir) for the treatment of adults hospitalized with mild-moderate or severe COVID-19, the company said.

The final ACTT-1 study results build on the preliminary results published in NEJM in May 2020, showing that treatment with Veklury resulted in consistent, clinically meaningful improvements across multiple outcome assessments compared with placebo in COVID-19 patients.

The final results demonstrate that treatment with Veklury resulted in a faster time to recovery than previously reported.

In the preliminary Day 15 results, Veklury plus standard of care shortened the time to recovery by four days, compared with placebo plus standard of care (11 vs. 15 days).

The primary endpoint of the study was time to clinical recovery through Day 29.

The study met its primary endpoint, demonstrating Veklury plus standard of care was superior in shortening the time to recovery through Day 29 compared with placebo plus standard of care.

In the final Day 29 results, patients receiving Veklury (n=541) achieved clinical recovery five days faster than those receiving placebo, with a median time to recovery of 10 days with Veklury and 15 days with placebo and an increased recovery rate by 29% compared with placebo (rate ratio for recovery, 1.29; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.12 to 1.49; p