On Thursday, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the antiviral drug remdesivir from Gilead Sciences Inc for the treatment of patients hospitalised with Covid-19, making it the first and only drug approved for the disease. Gilead said it is currently meeting real-time demand in the United States for remdesivir, which is sold under the brand name Veklury, and expects to meet worldwide demand by the end of October. One of the drugs used to treat the coronavirus infection of US President Donald Trump was Remdesivir, previously granted emergency use authorization by the FDA for Covid-19.

After a major study led by the National Institutes of Health demonstrated that it shortened hospital stays by five days, Remdesivir has become the standard of treatment for patients hospitalised with extreme Covid-19. But in patients with less serious conditions, doctors have been cautious of using the drug. Last week, the World Health Organization said its international Covid-19 therapy trial found that remdesivir did not have a significant impact on the duration of hospital stay or survival chances of patients. Outside experts have not analysed the study.