This archive report was first published on 30 June 2020.
US Secures Almost Entire Supply of COVID-19 Drug, Raising Concerns Over Global Access ¶
June 30, 2020
The Trump administration has secured nearly the entire supply of remdesivir, a COVID-19 treatment, for several months, sparking concerns about access to the drug for the rest of the world.
Remdesivir is the first drug shown to help patients with COVID-19, though its impact is modest. Hospitalized patients given the drug recovered four days faster than those given a placebo. Preliminary results did not show that it saved lives, but the study is ongoing.
The US Department of Health and Human Services announced that it had secured half a million treatment courses of the antiviral drug from its manufacturer, Gilead Sciences, including 100% of the company's production for July and 90% for August and September.
“President Trump has struck an amazing deal to ensure Americans have access to the first authorized therapeutic for COVID-19,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement.
However, the license agreement excludes more than 70 large middle-income countries, including Brazil, Mexico, and China. This raises concerns about access to the drug for these countries, which are home to half the world's population.
Public Citizen's Peter Maybarduk noted that the US government's purchase of the supply means that it is unclear where other countries will get the drug. “If the US government has bought up the supply, then I don’t know where they’d get” the drug, he added.
Doctors Without Borders' Jessica Burry also expressed concerns about the lack of a plan to supply low- and middle-income countries' markets during this interim period. “Gilead does not seem to have any plan to sufficiently supply low- and middle-income countries’ markets during this interim period while generics are coming on board, either, as they seem more focused on high-income country markets where they can make more money,” she added.
The drug will cost about $3,200 per treatment course in the United States, a price Maybarduk calls “offensive.” In contrast, Indian generic manufacturer Cipla said it will charge around $66.
Gilead donated the first 1.5 million doses worldwide, with the US receiving more than 900,000. However, the US is now at the front of the line for all additional half-million doses to be produced between now and the end of September.
Brook Baker, professor of law at Northeastern University, noted that the US government's actions are “wholly at the front of the line” for the additional doses. “There’s no way to explain this than to say, well, somehow between the US government and Gilead, they have collusively agreed that for whatever reason, Americans come first,” he added.
