The drug maker Gilead Sciences is expanding its clinical trials of the antiviral drug remdesivir as a possible coronavirus treatment into several countries outside China, the company announced on Wednesday.

Two new clinical trials of remdesivir are to begin in March, involving “approximately 1,000 patients at medical centers primarily across Asian countries, as well as other countries globally with high numbers of diagnosed cases,” Gilead said in a statement. It did not specify the countries where the trials will take place.

Remdesivir is already being tested in Wuhan, China, the center of the epidemic, and the United States National Institutes of Health announced on Tuesday that the drug would also be studied in some of the patients who contracted the illness overseas and were now being treated in Nebraska.