Explainer: Covid-19 treatment options available in the GCC

Explainer: Covid-19 treatment options available in the GCC

With your drug remdesivir receiving FDA approval for Covid-19 treatment, what is the process for getting approval for its usage in the GCC?

The US Food and Drug Administration approval for remdesivir was granted on October 22, 2020. In the GCC, we initiated discussions with national regulatory authorities in May 2020 to identify the most

appropriate regulatory pathways for the registration of remdesivir.

The current authorisations are at the federal level in each of the GCC countries, with approval already received in the UAE and emergency use authorisation in place in other GCC countries including Saudi Arabia, where the process for a full marketing authorisation approval by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority is in its final step.

While Covid-19 vaccines are receiving heightened attention, are there also several treatment options undergoing trials worldwide?

There are a number of treatments under investigation for Covid-19, but only one antiviral treatment is currently FDA-approved and that is remdesivir. The investigational treatments being explored include antiviral medications which work by interfering with the creation of new viruses, resulting in slowing or stopping the coronavirus from multiplying in cells. The others are immune enhancers with antibodies, either from convalescent plasma, which is filtered plasma from the blood of recovered Covid-19