A bipartisan multistate coalition is encouraging the federal government to increase the availability and affordability of Remdesivir patients hospitalized due to COVID-19.
Remdesivir is an investigational antiviral drug developed by Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD). It is the first antiviral that has showed promising results in clinical trials.
Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 given Remdesivir showed a decrease in recovery time by an average of four days based on the first results of a study conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
On Tuesday, the coalition led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry urged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to use their legal authority under the Bayh-Dole Act to increase the availability of Remdesivir at an affordable price during the pandemic.
Bipartisan coalition says Gilead Sciences unable to assure sufficient supply of Remdisivir
In the letter to the HHS, FDA, and NIH, the bipartisan coalition wrote Gilead Sciences received millions of dollars of federal funding to develop and manufacture Remdesivir.
