Gilead Sciences drug shows promising result during the coronavirus treatment, stock soars

When the COVID-19 pandemic recently broke out in the US, a few pharmaceuticals took it upon themselves to develop a vaccine or treatment for the coronavirus, and Gilead Sciences was one of the fore-runners.

Only a few months down the line, Gilead’s experimental drug, remdesivir has sparked positive reactions. In a Thursday report, the University of Chicago Medicine researchers said that there had been “rapid recoveries” in 125 COVID-19 patients taking the remdesivir as part of a clinical trial. Following the recent development, shares of Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) jumped 8% on Friday.

Before now, there had been no particular or official treatment for the coronavirus as many drugs were being used in trial. However, if the remdesivir proves successful in further trials, it may just be the breaking point for the world. Though the recent findings are still under clinical trial and have not been fully reported by the company as successful enough. According to Gilead the “totality of the data needs to be analyzed in order to draw any conclusions from the trial. Anecdotal reports, while encouraging, do not provide the statistical power necessary to determine the safety and efficacy profile of the remdesivir as a treatment for COVID-19.”

Since the pandemic started in late 2019, over 2 million people have been infected, with almost 150,000 people dead. As the number increases, the world is expectant of a tested and trusted treatment for the COVID-19.

According to the Stats. News report which reported the remdesivir progress, the 125 people who were being treated with the remdesivir are to undergo two Phase 3 clinical trials conducted by Gilead. Out of the total number of patients undergoing the Gilead clinical trials, 113 of them were are critically infected with the disease. Two of the 113 have also died.

In an email on Friday, a spokesperson of the University of Chicago said “partial data from an ongoing clinical trial is by definition incomplete and should never be used to draw conclusions about the safety or efficacy of a potential treatment that is under investigation.” The email further noted that “in this case, information from an internal forum for research colleagues concerning work in progress was released without any authorization. Drawing any conclusions at this point is premature and scientifically unsound.”

Gilead began two of its clinical trials in March: one trial is testing the drug in 1,600 moderately ill patients and the other trial is evaluating : in 2,400 patients who are severely infected with the disease. Both trials are to be concluded by May. As a result of this, Gilead would cannot yet release any authorized statement about the progress of the remdesivir treatment.

The confusion in the Gilead progress report has caused its stocks to rise and fall within the past week. On Wednesday, Gilead shares fell after a clinical trial update which said that Chinese authorities had to stop recruiting critically ill COVID-19 patients for further remdesivir testing.  Gilead’s stock on a year-to-date basis has gained 17.8% while the S&P 500 is down 13.8%.