Remdesivir—the medicine that has proven to be a successful new health technology in the battle against COVID-19

The global COVID-19 pandemic caused by the viral pathogen SARS-CoV-2 has surged the biomedical community into action to discover and develop effective antiviral drugs. One potential therapeutic approach currently being evaluated in multiple clinical trials is the medicinal product—remdesivir, which has had a tortuous development path over the past eight years. In essence, it is a nucleotide analog prodrug that inhibits viral replication. It was initially evaluated in clinical trials to prevent the Ebola outbreak in 2014. Subsequent evaluation by multiple virology laboratories around the world demonstrated remdesivir's ability to inhibit coronavirus replication, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus which is the cause of the current pandemic. In the presented paper, the authors provide an overview of the discovery of remdesivir, its mechanism of action, and current studies investigating its clinical effectiveness.