For the treatment of the COVID-19 patients, the clinical trial of the antiviral drug remdesivir, led by a team including an Indian-American physician, has shown positive results according to a US pharma company. This was the third of the three-phase trial of the drug.

Gilead Sciences, the California-based pharma company, reveals that the preliminary results showed that 50 percent of the COVID-19 patients who were treated with a 5-day dosage of remdesivir improved, and more than half got discharged from the hospital within a  couple of weeks. This phase three trial is said to be the final step in the process of drug approval.

The pharma company also claims that it has also kept a tab on positive data emerging from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' (NIAID) study of the investigational antiviral remdesivir for the treatment of the COVID-19.

Remdesivir is not yet licensed or approved anywhere globally and has not been demonstrated to be safe or effective for the treatment of the COVID-19.

The sampling sought to determine if the five-day course of remdesivir would achieve similar efficacy results as the 10-day treatment regimen in multiple ongoing studies of remdesivir, the company said.