Remdesivir for the Treatment of Severe SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Author Info

Zhipeng Yan Ka Shing Cheung Eric Ho-Yin Lau Ching-Lung Lai

Corresponding Author

Zhipeng Yan
Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong

A B S T R A C T

Background: Coronavirus Disease in 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection. Over 53 million people have been infected with over 1.3 million deaths. However, there is no standard treatment or vaccines to date. Recently, several randomized controlled trials and cohort studies have demonstrated the efficacy of remdesivir for the treatment of severe COVID-19 patients. This is a systematic review and meta-analysis to define its efficacy. Methods: A systematic review was done on databases (PubMed, Embase, Medline, Cochrane) on 9 Nov 2020. Search keywords were remdesivir, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, randomized controlled trials and cohort studies. Studies with high-evidence values were selected to evaluate its clinical efficacy in terms of risk ratio, time to clinical improvement, and mortality risk. Subgroup analysis was performed based on baseline hospitalization status, age and ethnicity. Results: Of the 1328 studies, 6 studies were selected and pooled for meta-analysis. Remdesivir was associated with clinical improvement (risk ratio 1.14, 95% CI 1.02-1.28, p=0.02). It shortened the mean time of clinical improvement by 3.32 days (95% CI -4.37 to -2.28, p<0.001). However, its use was not associated with reduced mortality risk (risk ratio 0.75, 95% CI 0.40–1.40). In subgroup analysis, remdesivir was associated with clinical improvement in patients without the need of invasive ventilation (risk ratio 1.90, 95% CI 1.58-2.29, p<0.001; hazard ratio 2.22, 95% CI, 1.64-3.02), and age less than 70 years (risk ratio 2.14, 95% CI 1.39-3.28, p<0.001). Conclusion: Remdesivir is effective in the treatment of severe COVID-19 patients, in particular those without invasive ventilation

Article Info

Article Type

Review Article

Publication history

Received: Sat 21, Nov 2020
Accepted: Sat 05, Dec 2020
Published: Wed 23, Dec 2020

Copyright

© 2023 Zhipeng Yan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.RGM.2020.04.01