By Kim Khan

Investing.com - Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) said after the bell Wednesday it will initiate two late-stage clinical trials for its drug remdesivir as a Covid-19 treatment.

About 1,000 patients will begin the trials in the beginning of March and “will assess two dosing durations of remdesivir, administered intravenously,” Gilead said in a press release.

The patients will come from “medical centers primarily across Asian countries, as well as other countries globally with high numbers of diagnosed cases.”

Shares of Gilead, up 6.56% in regular-session trading, added another 2.4% after the bell.

“The new clinical studies expand the ongoing research into remdesivir, which includes two clinical trials in China's Hubei province led by the China-Japan Friendship Hospital as well as the recently initiated clinical trial in the US led by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,” the company said.

Remdesivir is an antiviral that has been tested before in people infected with Ebola.

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U.S. stocks mixed at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.46%