The new coronavirus (yellow), isolated from a patient in the US.
Researchers in the US are conducting a clinical trial of a treatment for COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, the National Institutes of Health announced yesterday. There are currently over 80,000 confirmed cases of the disease around the world, and it has killed 2,770 people.
Two trials of the drug, an experimental antiviral called remdesivir, have already been up and running in China for a few weeks — and preliminary results appear promising. “There is only one drug right now that we think may have real efficacy and that’s remdesivir,” said Bruce Aylward, an assistant director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), at a press conference this week.
The US trial is centered at the University of Nebraska Medical…