America have already secured almost the entire stock of the potential corona drug.
The government of US President Trump has bought more than 500,000 doses of the drug. This means that it will use the entire production capacity of the manufacturer Gilead for July and 90% of the capacity of August and September. As a result, by the beginning of October, Remdesivir will be practically unavailable for treatment of Covid-19 patients in the rest of the world. Most recently, the EU Medicines Agency recommended that the drug should be approved. A study at the end of April showed that Remdesivir can reduce the time to recovery in covid-19 patients by four days on average.
The bulk purchase of Remdesivir could be a reaction to the renewed sharp rise in the number of infections in the USA. Most recently, chief virologist Anthony Fauci warned of up to 100,000 new cases every day. He was “very concerned” about the more than 40,000 infections per day.
Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical company Gilead announced a price for the treatment with Remdesivir. An ampoule of the drug will be made available to “developed countries” for 390 dollars (348 €). If administered six times, the price would be 2340 dollars (2088 €) per patient. This price also applies in the USA. For privately insured patients there, a glass vial costs 520 dollars (464 €).
- Hector Pascua
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