The head of the European Union's medicines agency Guido Rasi said on Monday an initial authorisation for U.S. pharmaceutical company Gilead's remdesivir as a COVID-19 treatment could be granted in coming days.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has already recommended the compassionate use of remdesivir, which allows a drug to be administered to patients even before it has been fully authorised.

"It might be that a conditional market authorisation can be issued in the coming days," Rasi told a hearing in the EU Parliament in Brussels.

Apart from remdesivir, Rasi said other possible treatments against COVID-19 that may be available fast are those based on monoclonal antibodies, which can "neutralize" the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that causes the illness COVID-19.