Remdesivir, once only inpatient Covid treatment, could become outpatient as antibody supplies wane

With access to supplies of monoclonal antibodies limited due to short supply, a therapy from earlier in the pandemic has recently gotten the green light to be used in outpatient settings to treat early cases of Covid-19. But health systems are in the early stages of being able to set up the treatment.

Remdesivir, which is under the brand name of Gilead Science’s Veklury — was approved this week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration with its emergency use authorization to be used in the outpatient setting for patients who have early, mild symptoms but are at risk of hospitalization or death. It had previously only been used in the hospital, and before that it had been designed to treat hepatitis C.

That’s potentially good news for patients, and there have been many in the past few weeks, who haven’t been able to get monoclonal antibody treatment because two of the three medications don’t work against the omicron variant that has overtaken delta in prominence in the region over the past month. The third, sotromivab, is effective but there isn’t a lot of it available.

Read more about Remdesivir from our partners at Pittsburgh Business Times here.

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