Roxborough Memorial Gets COVID-19 Treatment Drug Remdesivir

ROXBOROUGH, PHILADELPHIA — Roxborough Memorial Hospital in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia is among 51 in Pennsylvania to receive Remdesivir, a drug aimed to treat patients with COVID-19.

The local hospital has averaged approximately three coronavirus patients on ventilators over the past week, according to information from the Pennsylvania Department of Health. It received 18 vials of the investigational antiviral medication.

Pennsylvania, with nearly 58,000 cases of coronavirus, is among a handful of states to receive the medication from the federal government. The federal government delivered the first shipment of 1,200 doses of Remdesivir to Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

Remdesivir has received an "Emergency Use Authorization" from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to help those hospitalized during the coronavirus pandemic.

The medication is given via IV once per day for up to 10 days and may help decrease the amount of coronavirus in your body, enabling a shorter recovery time, state health officials said.

Preliminary results of a clinical trial by The National Institutes of Health and manufacturer Gilead Sciences suggested the medication enabled a faster recovery, "although the data was not sufficient to determine if the drug was associated with lower mortality," the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a news release.

"We now have solid data showing that Remdesivir diminishes to a modest degree the time to recovery for people hospitalized with COVID-19," Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert, said in a statement.

See the full list of 51 Pennsylvania hospitals who now have the medication.