As requested by the sponsor Gilead Sciences, On January 21, 2022 the FDA granted EUA approval to expand the use of the antiviral drug Veklury (remdesivir) to “certain non-hospitalised adults and pediatric patients for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 disease”. Their justification is that it “provides another treatment option to reduce the risk of hospitalization in high-risk patients”, even with the renal problems. [2]
Previously, the use of remdesivir was limited to patients requiring hospitalization. EUA was first granted in May 2020.
In addition the FDA revised the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for remdesivir to include pediatric infants weighing 3.5 kilograms to children weighing less than 40 kilograms even though there IS NO safety data, and children are not at risk of COVID-19, but certainly at risk of the drug side effects! [1]