HERSHEY, Pa. — Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center has enrolled its first patients in the continuation of a clinical trial using the investigational antiviral drug remdesivir for treatment of COVID-19. The initial portion of the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT), sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), ended in mid-April and showed that remdesivir may accelerate the recovery of patients with severe COVID-19.
The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is one of approximately 100 hospitals internationally participating in the continuation of the study and is the only hospital in central Pennsylvania to participate in the clinical trial.
All participants in the next iteration, ACCT 2, will be given remdesivir and either an anti-inflammatory drug called baricitinib or a placebo containing inactive ingredients. Baricitinib is already FDA-approved in the U.S. and more than 65 other countries as a treatment for adults with moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis. It is taken orally and helps to inhibit, or stop, cytokine signaling in the body that play roles in causing inflammatory responses. The combination of baricitinib and remdesivir as a treatment for COVID-19 has not been evaluated in a large, randomized controlled trial to date.
“Data from ACTT shows that remdesivir shortens the time to recovery for people hospitalized with COVID-19,” said site principal investigator Dr. Catharine Paules, an infectious diseases physician at Hershey Medical Center and assistant professor of medicine at Penn State College of Medicine. “Now that we know that remdesivir has a modest positive impact on patient outcomes we want to see if we can build on that success. The continuation of the trial will assess whether pairing remdesivir with the anti-inflammatory drug baracitinib leads to further improvement in outcomes.”