Newark Hospital Gives ‘Promising’ Coronavirus Drug A Chance

NEWARK, NJ — A Newark hospital is among a handful around the world that are trying out a new treatment for the coronavirus which causes COVID-19, administrators announced Monday.

Remdesivir, one of “the most promising treatments for COVID-19” currently available, is being made available through an expanded access program at Prime Healthcare’s Saint Michael’s Medical Center in Newark, officials said.

According to hospital administrators, the drug was originally developed by Gilead Sciences to treat Ebola. The antiviral drug is effective against two other coronaviruses that cause deadly respiratory diseases – SARS and MERS – and is in five large clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19.

There is currently no treatment approved for COVID-19, hospital administrators said.

Read the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s statement on Remdesivir as a coronavirus treatment here.

The situation is urgent, administrators said. In the past week, Saint Michael’s has seen a spike in patients with the disease. Currently nearly every bed in the hospital is filled with patients who have tested positive for the virus.

• See related article: Newark Area Hospitals Lack Beds For Coronavirus Surge, Report Says

Saint Michael’s is one of only a handful of sites in the world to participate in the expanded access program, which will allow the hospital to administer Remdesivir to critically ill patients who are on ventilators.

The hospital has worked with Gilead since the pharmaceutical company was founded in 1987.

“Just as we played an important role in helping to find medications for AIDS, our Infectious Disease Department is once again ready to take on that role as we fight against COVID-19,” said Jihad Slim, who heads the department at Saint Michael’s.

“If Remdesivir works the way we all hope it will, it will be a game changer,” Slim said.

READ MORE: NJ Coronavirus Updates (Here's What You Need To Know)

James Fallon, the director of clinical research at Saint Michael’s, said Remdesivir was previously available on a limited basis through a “compassionate use” program for individual patients who were too ill to participate in a clinical trial. About 1,000 people were participating in the compassionate use program.

Gilead Sciences Chairman and CEO Daniel O’Day wrote in an open letter published in March week that compassionate use typically works well when there are a limited number of requests for the drug.

“But the system cannot support and process the overwhelming number of applications we have seen with COVID-19,” O’Day wrote. “There is nothing typical about this crisis.”

With expanded access, hospitals or physicians can apply for emergency use of Remdesivir for multiple severely ill patients at a time.

“This approach will ultimately accelerate emergency access for more people,” O’Day stated.

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