Not long after the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus, a medicine named "remdesivir" emerged in news reports. Many hope this drug, an antiviral designed to treat Ebola, can be a salvation in the COVID-19 pandemic.

But it takes careful medical trials to confirm an old drug can treat a new disease, and the initial results seem to suggest bad news.

The latest trial result from China, accidentally put online by the World Health Organization (WHO), showed that remdesivir doesn't work.

CGTN Digital was able to capture screenshots and web caches to review the content, before the WHO took down the mistakenly uploaded information from their website.

"Remdesivir was not associated with clinical or virological benefits," the document summary read.

The document noted that total of 237 patients in Wuhan, China took the trial, less than the expected 308.

Some of them took the drug and the rest took a placebo to ensure the result is scientifically valid.

The data revealed more patients taking remdesivir died versus those who took the placebo.

Company response

Drug maker Gilead Sciences from California, U.S., put a statement online after the company's stock fell.

They say the information on WHO website was "prematurely posted" without the permission from the researchers.

Also, the trial "was terminated early" because there were not enough people to provide a meaningful result.

Data collected during the trial have been submitted for peer-review, according to the company. This means it's still too early to draw any conclusions from the trial.

The lack of participants may also render the trial useless. What's worse, similar studies may not be able to go on in China since there are currently less than 1,000 known patients in the country and not all of them want to risk a drug trial.

There are other trials of the same drug outside of China. One carried out by the University of Chicago Medicine in the U.S. reported good results, but Gilead Sciences also stated the data needed further analyzing.

That is not to say there is no other medicine that may help treat the disease. CGTN Digital is following other medical trials and will share timely updates.