Wang Y, Zhang D, Du G, et al. - In view of inhibitory effects of remdesivir (GS-5734), a nucleoside analogue prodrug, on pathogenic animal and human coronaviruses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in vitro, and on Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, SARS-CoV-1, and SARS-CoV-2 replication in animal models, researchers conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre trial at ten hospitals in Hubei, China including 237 patients (aged ≥18 years) who were admitted to hospital with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, with an interval from symptom onset to enrolment of 12 days or less, oxygen saturation of 94% or less on room air or a ratio of arterial oxygen partial pressure to fractional inspired oxygen of 300 mm Hg or less, and radiologically confirmed pneumonia. They randomly allocated the patients in a 2:1 ratio to intravenous remdesivir (200 mg on day 1 followed by 100 mg on days 2–10 in single daily infusions) or the same volume of placebo infusions for 10 days. Per outcomes, there was no association of remdesivir with statistically significant clinical benefits. However, they observed numerical reduction in time to clinical improvement in those treated earlier which needs confirmation in larger studies.