The preliminary findings of a controlled World Health Organization study finds that the drug Remdesivir has no impact on hospitalized COVID patients, the Associated Press reports.

While the study has not yet been peer-reviewed, the data were posted on a website that allows researchers to share their findings.  The study should not be viewed as contradicting earlier studies that show benefits from Remdesivir, but instead should be seen as additional information in the search for a treatment, the WHO stated.

In the study, 11,000 people hospitalized with COVID-19 were randomly given one of five courses of treatment:  Remdesivir, the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, the immune-system booster interferon, the antiviral combo lopinavir-ritonavir, or just usual care.

The 2,700 people who received Remdesivir did not have any significant improvement than people who received usual care.  According to the AP report, “Death rates after 28 days, the need for breathing machines and time in the hospital were relatively similar for those given Remdesivir versus usual care.”

US scientists who studied Remdesivir, including those from Gilead Sciences which manufactures the drug, said that WHO study was faulty and poorly designed because it required patients to say in hospital for ten days to receive treatments.

Dr. Margaret Harris, a WHO spokeswoman, attributed the difference in the conclusions of the two studies to the fact WHO’s was larger than those conducted in the US.  “It’s just a much higher-powered study,” she said. “It’s quadruple the number of people in all the other studies.”