US stock futures and Asian markets jump following Gilead drug trial report, Boeing plans to resume production
Boeing’s stock lifted futures after the company announced a plan to resume production of commercial aircraft at its Puget Sound facility. The first employees will return to the plant on April 20, the company said Thursday.
The 125 patients in a clinical trial of the drug all had severe respiratory symptoms and fever, but many were able to leave the hospital after less than a week of treatment, STAT quoted the doctor leading the trial as saying. However, the trial does not include what’s known as a control group, so it will be difficult to say whether the drug is truly helping patients recover better.
“The best news is that most of our patients have already been discharged, which is great. We’ve only had two patients perish,” Dr. Kathleen Mullane, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Chicago who is leading the clinical trial, said in the video.
Mullane did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN. The university said it would comment once the official results of the trial were ready.
Gilead said it expected results from the trial by the end of the month, adding that “the totality of the data need to be analyzed in order to draw any conclusions from the trial.”
“Anecdotal reports, while encouraging, do not provide the statistical power necessary to determine the safety and efficacy profile of remdesivir as a treatment for Covid-19,” Gilead said.
US stocks closed higher on Thursday, clinging to gains despite a string of weak economic reports. The Dow closed up 33 points, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 finished 0.6% higher and the Nasdaq jumped 1.7%.
–CNN’s Maggie Fox, Clare Duffy and Anneken Tappe contributed to this report.