Japan approves Gilead Sciences's Remdesivir for use in expedited process

Japanese health authorities have approved Gilead Sciences's Remdesivir anti-viral drug as a treatment for Covid-19.

The approval, which took just three days, was expedited by the country's authorities due to the urgency of the global pandemic.

It also followed a similar move by authorities in the States in the wake of recent successful clinical trials that demonstrated the drug's ability to shorten the time to recovery of a majority of patients who had been administered the drug.

Japan is testing another anti-viral, Avigan, which is manufactured by Fujifilm Holdings Corp., and hopes that it will be available by the end of May.

Another drug undergoing trials in the Asian country is Ivermectin, which was developed by Nobel prize-laureate Satoshi Omura.

Relatively few people have been officially diagnosed with Covid-19 in Japan, although the more than 15,000 infections have claimed the lives of over 500 Japanese.

A national state of emergency had been declared in place in the archipelago for until 31 May.