An experimental Gilead Sciences antiviral drug prevented disease and reduced the severity of symptoms in monkeys infected with Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), an infection closely related to the fast-spreading coronavirus that originated in China, a study published on Thursday found.
The results, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, raise hope that the drug, remdesivir, currently in clinical trials in China, might be effective against the new virus that has infected some 60,000 people globally, and killed more than 1,300, mostly in China.
Remdesivir had previously been shown to be protective in monkeys infected with the Ebola virus, but that did not translate to humans.