Remdesivir, the drug developed as a treatment for Covid-19 by Gilead Sciences, helped patients with “moderate” disease recover more quickly when they received it for five days, but the benefit was not statistically significant when given for 10 days, the company said Monday…

The patients in this study had what was termed “moderate” disease, meaning that they were hospitalized but did not need mechanical ventilation at any time. Unlike the study in more severe patients, this study did not give a placebo to those who did not receive the drug, meaning that both physicians and patients knew who was getting remdesivir and who wasn’t.

Patients who received remdesivir for five days were 65% more likely to show improvement on a seven-point scale, where 1 was death and 7 was “not hospitalized,” at the end of 11 days. Those who received remdesivir for 10 days were 31% more likely to have improved on the seven-point scale, but that difference was not statistically significant, meaning that it might have occurred by chance.