Doctors in Washington State gave remdesivir (Gilead antiviral drug) to the first coronavirus patient in the United States last week after his condition worsened and pneumonia developed when he’d been in the hospital for a week. His symptoms improved the next day. Two clinical trials will take place in Wuhan, China, the center of the outbreak; 500 patients will receive the drug, and comparison groups will get a placebo. The patients will get the drug intravenously for 10 days, and then assessed 28 days after the treatment to see how they fared compared to the placebo groups
The New England Journal of Medicine -First Case of 2019 Novel Coronavirus in the United States. Remdesivir and chloroquine (anti-malarial) stops coronavirus in the lab. Nature – Remdesivir and chloroquine effectively inhibit the recently emerged novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in vitro
China has begun clinical trials of remdesivir.
There are currently limited available clinical supplies of remdesivir, but Gilead is working to increase the available supply as rapidly as possible. They had stockpiled the drug in case of an Ebola outbreak.