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The study, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry this week, is among the first in Canada to discuss the COVID-19 strain.

“What our study showed was that remdesivir essentially mimics one of the natural building blocks for RNA synthesis necessary for genome replication of the virus. Enzymes within the virus are synthesizing the viral RNA genome with these building blocks, but they mix up the bits they need with the drug. Once the drug is incorporated into the growing RNA chain, the virus can no longer replicate,” explains Götte.

Until now, there has not been a published explanation of why remdesivir may work against coronaviruses, he said.

Remdesivir was developed by Gilead Sciences in response to the 2014 West African Ebola virus epidemic.

Earlier this year, it was used on a novel coronavirus patient in the United States. The patient was given the drug on the seventh day of illness, and showed marked improvement the following day, with symptoms eventually disappearing altogether, reported The New England Journal of Medicine.

The assistant director-general of the World Health Organization, Bruce Alyward, at a recent press conference in Beijing, said remdesivir is the only drug available that may be effective in fighting COVID-19.

Results from ongoing clinical trials with remdesivir are expected by the end of April.

“It’s likely we’ll need more than one drug to properly fight emerging diseases like COVID-19, as we have with HIV and hepatitis C virus infections,” adds Götte. “Ideally, we will have a couple of drugs because certain strains could be resistant to certain treatments.”

Götte’s study was supported by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Alberta Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism through the Major Innovation Fund Program and Antimicrobial Resistance — One Health Consortium.