Issued in the press release on 3rd April 2020 by the European Medical Agency's (EMA); the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) presented the recommendations on the use of remdesivir for COVID-19 treatment in compassionate use programmes. These recommendations were provided in an extraordinary virtual meeting held on 2 April 2020.

The compassionate use programmes are set in the European Union (EU) at individual EU Member States level in which the treatment options for life-threatening conditions with no marketed drugs available are provided, these drugs could be in clinical trials and are used under strictly controlled conditions.

The Estonia, Greece, the Netherlands and Romania had requested the opinion of CHMP for the use of remdesivir in COVID-19 patients. If severe, COVID-19 causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, pneumonia, multi-organ failure and death.

Dr Harald Enzmann, the chair of the CHMP said that, though the data from clinical trials about the efficacy and safety of investigational medicinal products remains the gold standard, the compassionate use programmes are needed for remdesivir in COVID-19 patients who are not eligible for clinical trials.

The investigational drug remdesivir has found to be active against coronaviruses (SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV) in studies but with a limited data of its efficacy and safety in COVID-19.

The CHMP wants to ensure the use of common approach criteria to be followed prior to the compassionate use programmes by the Member States. The CHMP describes the recommendations for the use of remdesivir and for the patients it is intended to be used during the compassionate use programmes.