FDA approves antibody test and drug

Doctors have the green light to use the medication remdesivir on patients with severe cases of COVID-19. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the intravenous experimental drug made in the United States by Gilead Sciences only for patients in critical need such as those on ventilators or with severe breathing problems. The federal agency also gave the go-ahead to Roche, headquartered in Switzerland, to distribute a test in the United States that detects antibodies for the new coronavirus.

Will the drug and the test work? Both look promising, but neither has undergone the FDA’s usual full vetting process. Preliminary data from a recent study of more than a thousand hospitalized COVID-19 patients showed participants who were given remdesivir recovered 31 percent faster. Roche claims its antibody test is nearly 100 percent accurate. But the World Health Organization warned that antibodies don’t guarantee immunity to the new coronavirus, and it’s unclear how long they might protect someone before they could contract the disease again.

Dig deeper: Read Julie Borg’s breakdown of different kinds of COVID-19 tests in Beginnings.