The maker of remdesivir is responding to the FDA emergency approval of their drug by donating their entire supply of the drug to treat coronavirus patients this week:
DAILY MAIL – The CEO of Gilead Sciences, the company that makes the promising drug remdesivir, says it will be available to treat COVID-19 patients as early as this week after receiving approval from the FDA.
The drug showed promising results in a study of more than 1,000 people around the world and has been touted as one of the first steps in reopening the economy.
Scientists found that patients who were given it recovered 31 percent faster than those who did not and that the mortality rate among recipients was around three percent lower; it was 8 percent in the drug recipients and 11.6 percent in placebo patients.
1.5 million vials could treat nearly 200,000 patients…
In an interview with Face The Nation on CBS on Sunday, Gilead CEO Dan O’Day said the company had donated its entire supply of the drug to the government to roll out to hospitals across the US and that it will also send some overseas.
‘We intend to get that to patients in the early part of this next week, beginning to work with the government, which will determine which cities are most vulnerable and where the patients are that need this medicine,’ O’Day said.
Stocks for the company rose last week after the results of the study were announced by Dr. Tony Fauci, the White House’s foremost coronavirus expert.
O’Day said that the company had now donated 1.5million vials of it to the government.
Depending on the length of a patient’s treatment, the supply should cater to between 100,000 and 200,000 people, O’Day said.
As we’ve reported recently, remdesivir has been very successful in treating patients with severe COVID-19. It sounds like a good complimentary drug to HCQ, as it seems to be more successful with less severe patients. It’s a huge deal that Gilead is donating its entire supply for use this week with patients who need it. If you want you can watch Dan O’Day’s interview below: