Gilead Sciences Exporting Remdesivir, To Donate 1.5 Million Vials — CEO

Gilead Sciences had been exporting Remdesivir and was making the antiviral drug available to patients in the US through its government, according to its chief executive.

The chief executive of Gilead Sciences on Sunday said that the company had been exporting Remdesivir and was making the antiviral drug available to patients in the United States through its government.

This, as Daniel O’Day, the chief executive of Gilead Sciences, said that the company was donating 1.5 million vials of Remdesivir, which was enough to treat 100,000 – 200,000 COVID-19 patients.

In an interview with CBS, Daniel O’Day said that the company has been exporting Remdesivir for clinical trials and “for compassionate use”thousands of treatment courses, adding that Gilead Sciences had been transparent with the government.

Gilead Sciences
Gilead Sciences Inc. CEO Daniel O’Day | Photo from AFP News

“Emergency-use Authorization”

The Food and Drug Administration in the United States previously approved the emergency use of Remdesivir — an antiviral drug presented a “statistically significant” in shortening the time of recovery for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 — in treating patients with severe COVID-19.

Stephen Hahn, the Commissioner of the US FDA, previously stated that the said drug was the “first” authorized drug in treating coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 in the United States. O’Day, on the other hand, said that the government will check how Remdesivir was allocated in the US, adding that there would be a significantly greater supply of antiviral drug in the second half of 2020.

As per the report, Gilead Sciences hadn’t been barred from exporting the antiviral drug, according to Daniel O’Day.

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READ ALSO | US FDA Approves Remdesivir, Issues Emergency-use Authorization

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