US bought nearly the entire supply of a key coronavirus drug

[Chris Smith]

• Remdesivir is one of the novel coronavirus treatments that has shown some efficacy, but the drug is already in short supply.
• The Trump administration purchased nearly the entire remdesivir supply that Gilead Science will manufacture over the next three months.
• The US government purchased 500,000 doses of remdesivir, much to the dismay of critics from the scientific community and other officials involved in the COVID-19 response.

Remdesivir is one of the two drugs that have shown some effectiveness against the novel coronavirus, but remdesivir therapy only works for a specific type of patient. The antiviral can reduce recovery time by several days, one recent study showed, but it won't work in severe cases, and it can't prevent deaths. If anything, more research is required to determine whether remdesivir can be paired with a secondary drug to improve its effectiveness.

Even so, remdesivir is included in standard COVID-19 care in the US, and the Trump administration just acquired nearly all the available remdesivir supply. US officials warned a few weeks that supply will run low, and they've now fixed the problem. The move drew criticism from the rest of the world. Several countries were part of the studies that helped demonstrate the effectiveness of the therapy, and there are plenty of serious COVID-19 outbreaks elsewhere, with Brazil and India being two countries that have been hit hardest in recent weeks.

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US bought nearly the entire supply of a key coronavirus drug originally appeared on BGR.com on Thu, 2 Jul 2020 at 17:08:55 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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