Wuhan starts using antiviral drug in clinical trials against coronavirus - media

The registration for clinical trials on the antiviral drug Remdesivir has been approved, and the first batch of pneumonia patients infected by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) have started taking the drug today.

Remdesivir is a drug developed by Gilead Sciences, an American pharmaceutical company, head of the drug's clinical trial program Cao Bin said.

A total of 761 patients have been enrolled in the trials, which will adopt a randomised, double-blind and placebo-controlled study method, Xinhua reported.

The trials, led by the China-Japan Friendship Hospital and the Institute of Materia Medica under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS), are conducted in several hospitals in Wuhan, including the Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital.