On Apr. 17, 2020, the NIH announced that early treatment with the experimental antiviral drug remdesivir significantly reduced clinical disease and damage to the lungs of rhesus macaques infected with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

The study of remdesivir, a drug developed by Gilead Sciences and NIAID-supported investigators, involved two groups of six rhesus macaques.