Is Remdesivir, the antiviral drug of US drug maker Gilead, used for treating hospitalised COVID-19 patients, named after an Indian scientist?
A message that has been widely circulated in social media says the drug was named after Ramesh EM Desigan, the lead scientist in the team of Tomas Cihlar, the Czech biochemist known for his role in the development of Remdesivir.
The backstory Ramesh Desigan hails from Rasipuram near Salem in Tamil Nadu. He is from a poor family, and received a scholarship to study at the Madras Christian College, followed by a PhD in Pharmacology from JNU, New Delhi.
In 2002, Ramesh moved to California to work for Gilead Sciences, and was instrumental in identifying the viral pathways that could be blocked by antiviral drugs. Initially called Ebpantuvir, the name was changed in honour of the inventor of the drug to REMDesiVir.
The social media post says that in honour for this discovery, Gilead donated $2 million to the Rasi International School, where he did his primary education.
The message did gain some traction in academic circles. This extract was
published in Acta Scientific Pharmacology, an online peer review scientific journal. It was shared on a Facebook account of trade body International Biotech Technochrats & Consultants Association, and other medical blogs.
Fake message
Gilead said the message is inaccurate.
“The information in the circulating message is inaccurate. Remdesivir is not named after any individual,” Gilead said in a statement to Moneycontrol.
Tomas Cihlar, Vice President of Virology, leads Gilead’s antiviral research, and led the research and development efforts related to Remdesivir for five years. But there was no mention about any Ramesh Desigan being part of his team.
Moneycontrol could just identify one Ramesh Desikan, whose LinkedIn profile says that he is an Assistant Professor at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. He isn’t anyway connected to Gilead or antiviral drugs.
Real backstory of Remdesivir
Gilead says the research that led to Remdesivir began as early as 2009, with research programmes under way in Hepatitis C.
But the Remdesivir that’s in use is an outcome of collaboration between Gilead Sciences, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID).
Scientists, who were searching for drugs to treat RNA-based viruses that have global pandemic potential, have identified the Remdesivir precursor by screening hundreds of compounds in Gilead’s library.
Remdesivir was initially tested on respiratory syncytial virus and Ebola virus. It was abandoned following lacklustre data from clinical trials on treating Ebola patients. But the drug, given its ability to block virus replication, has been under-studied as treatment for SARS and MERS caused by Coronaviruses, has been quickly repurposed to treat COVID-19 patients. The drug got approval from the USFDA last month.
In India, Remdesivir is marketed by Cipla, Hetero, Zydus Cadila, Dr Reddy’s, Jubilant Life Sciences and Mylan under licence from Gilead. Gilead's licence also allows these companies to sell in about 126 countries.
