Colorado State Emergency Operations Center

The Colorado State Unified Command Group (UCG) has received an initial shipment of the experimental anti-viral drug remdesivir from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to investigate its benefit in improving recovery in patients with severe COVID-19 symptoms. The UCG received enough doses of the drug to treat approximately 100 patients and began distributing the drug this week to eight hospital systems that serve Coloradans across the state.

Supplies are being distributed in proportion to the number of COVID-19 cases and persons under investigation occurring at each hospital system.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for use of remdesivir for the treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Gilead Sciences, Inc. committed to supplying approximately 607,000 vials of the experimental drug over the next six weeks to treat an estimated 78,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients under the EUA granted by the FDA.

Preliminary results of a randomized controlled clinical trial suggested that remdesivir was associated with faster recovery for hospitalized patients. Multiple clinical trials are currently underway or in development.

Decisions on who should receive a dose will be made by physicians and their patients based on the recommendations under the EUA. As required by the EUA, health care providers must carefully document administration of remdesivir and submit a report on all medication errors and all serious adverse events.

Read more about remdesivir and the HHS partnership here, https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/index.html.