| |
Gilead CEO says remdesivir will be available to patients this week: 'We've donated the entire supply'
|
| |
| |
Published Sun, May 3 2020
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/03/gilead-ceo-says-remdesivir-available-to-coronavirus-patients-this-week-weve-donated-the-entire-supply.html
"We've donated the entire supply that we have within our supply chain and we did that because we acknowledge and recognize the human suffering, the human need here, and want to make sure nothing gets in the way of this getting to patients," O'Day added.
"What we will do is provide that donation to the U.S. government and they will determine - based upon things like ICU beds, where the course of the epidemic is in the United States - they will begin shipping tens of thousands of treatment courses out early this week and be adjusting that as the epidemic shifts and evolves in different parts, in different cities in the United States," O'Day added.
"We're now firmly focused on getting this medicine to the most urgent patients around the country here in the United States," CEO Daniel O'Daytold CBS's "Face the Nation." O'Day said the federal government will determine which cities have the most number of patients who urgently need remdesivir. "They will begin shipping tens of thousands of treatment courses out early this week," he added. Until now, the only way to get remdesivir was to be in a clinical trial on the antiviral drug. Earlier this week, Gilead said it had been ramping up supply, and expected to have 140,000 treatment courses of remdesivir by the end of May, going up to 1 million by the end of December. https://qz.com/1850455/us-government-to-dole-out-remdesivir-to-cities-based-on-urgent-need/
The drug will be offered for compassionate use, expanded access and clinical trials, and will treat patients with severe symptoms, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Daniel O'Day said in an open letter. The company is also boosting its supply of remdesivir to more than 500,000 treatment courses by October, and to more than 1 million by the end the year. Production time has also been accelerated to six months from one year, he said. A World Health Organization panel said in January that remdesivir was considered to be the most promising therapeutic candidate based on its broad antiviral spectrum, and existing data based on human and animal studies. The medication was developed initially for Ebola and studied in patients in Eastern Congo...https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-04/gilead-to-donate-experimental-coronavirus-drug-for-140-000-cases
Gilead CEO says remdesivir will be available to patients this week: 'We've donated the entire supply'
Dr. Mark Denison of Vanderbilt University is one of a handful of researchers who discovered remdesivir's potential. He began studying coronaviruses a quarter-century ago, a time when few scientists cared about them - the ones infecting humans caused colds, he recalled, and scientists just wanted to know how they worked
Coronaviruses hold much more RNA than scientists once theorized a virus could. Many viruses that cause epidemics rely on this type of genetic material, and almost all mutate constantly. That is why flu viruses change from year to year.
Yet coronaviruses did not change much - their mutation rate is about one-twentieth the rate of other RNA viruses.
In 2007, Dr. Denison discovered that coronaviruses have a powerful "proofreading" system. If an error occurs in copying RNA as the coronavirus replicates, it corrects the error. In lab experiments, coronaviruses that mutated were weaker, outcompeted by those without mutations.
....https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/health/coronavirus-remdesivir.html
Published Sun, May 3 2020
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/03/gilead-ceo-says-remdesivir-available-to-coronavirus-patients-this-week-weve-donated-the-entire-supply.html
Key Points
• Gilead's antiviral drug - remdesivir - has shown success in helping coronavirus patients recover faster.
• "We intend to get [remdesivir] 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," Gilead Sciences chairman and CEO Daniel O'Day told CBS' "Face of the Nation."
• Gilead Sciences donated its entire supply of the drug to the U.S. government.
Gilead Sciences' coronavirus fighting drug will be in the hands of doctors and patients as early as this week, the biotechnology company's CEO said Sunday.
"We intend to get [remdesivir] 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," Gilead Sciences chairman and CEO Daniel O'Day told CBS' "Face of the Nation."
"We've donated the entire supply that we have within our supply chain and we did that because we acknowledge and recognize the human suffering, the human need here, and want to make sure nothing gets in the way of this getting to patients," O'Day added.
The deadly coronavirus has caused unprecedented societal and financial disruption in the U.S. and worldwide. Gilead's antiviral drug - remdesivir - has been a source of hope for the more than 1.1 million Americans diagnosed with the fast-spreading illness as well as market participants hoping for a swift reopening of the economy.
Gilead released preliminary results from its clinical trial on its antiviral drug remdesivir last week, showing at least 50% of the COVID-19 patients treated with a five-day dosage of the drug improved. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases then released a study that showed Covid-19 patients who took remdesivir usually recovered after 11 days, four days faster than those who didn't take the drug.
Following these successful trials, the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for the drug to treat Covid-19. That means the drug has not undergone the same review as FDA-approved treatments, but doctors will be allowed to administer remdesivir to patients hospitalized with the disease. All of the drug supply will go to the government to allocate around the nation.
"What we will do is provide that donation to the U.S. government and they will determine - based upon things like ICU beds, where the course of the epidemic is in the United States - they will begin shipping tens of thousands of treatment courses out early this week and be adjusting that as the epidemic shifts and evolves in different parts, in different cities in the United States," O'Day added.
Gilead expects to produce more than 140,000 rounds of its 10-day treatment regimen by the end of May and anticipates it can make 1 million rounds by the end of this year.
Shares of Gilead Sciences are up nearly 25% this year.
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
