Millions of remdesivir coronavirus treatment courses will be available THIS YEAR, Gilead CEO says – The Sun

MILLIONS of remdesivir treatment courses could be released by the end of this year, the CEO of Gilead Sciences said on Friday.

Daniel O’Day told NBC’s Today that because of the antiviral drug’s success in helping treat severe coronavirus cases, they’re working on getting it to patients immediately.

“We’re moving very quickly with the [Food and Drug Administration],” the chairman said.

“I expect that they’re going to act very quickly and we are prepared as a company to make sure we get this medicine to as many patients as possible, as soon as possible after that approval.”

Gilead Sciences announced on Wednesday that federal drug trial results show at least 50 percent of patients treated with remdesivir improved and were quickly released from the hospital.

The drug is given through an IV and is designed to interfere with the virus’s ability to copy its genetic material.

The study, run by the National Institutes of Health, tracked two groups of 397 patients hospitalized with the coronavirus: one group was treated with remdesivir for five days, while the second was treated for 10 days.

Gilead said more than half of those treated in both groups were discharged from the hospital within two weeks.

Results showed that 64.5 percent of those who underwent the five-day treatment “achieved clinical recovery” while 53.8 percent of patients who received the 10-day treatment achieved the same.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said: "The data shows that remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery."

“This will be the standard of care,” Fauci said. “When you know a drug works, you have to let people in the placebo group know so they can take it.”

O’Day said on Friday noted the drug has been proven to help “the most severe patients,” and is “not a cure.”

He described it as “a very, very significant important treatment for patients.”

“Clearly with other medicines and with vaccines to come, this is part, I think the beginning of our ability to make an impact on this devastating virus.”

O’Day said Gilead Sciences put their “decades of antiviral experience to work,” and said the company was “prepared and ready for this virus because of some of the work we’ve done with remdesivir for the past decade.”

He said the company has “gone from around 5,000 treatment courses to today almost 100,000 treatment courses.”

“And because of our investments early, we think we will get to millions of treatment courses by the end of the year.”

“Our scientists have been very effective at reducing the time it takes to make this medicine,” O’Day said, but noted it’s a “sophisticated chemical process that takes time.”

Gilead Sciences donated the first 1.5million doses of the drug, and O’Day said the company understands their “responsibility to get this medicine in the hands of as many patients as possible and really try to make a difference in this pandemic.”

He added scientists are working to try to determine if remdesivir can be used to intervene earlier on coronavirus patients, rather than later and in severe cases.

There are currently no approved cures or vaccines for the coronavirus, which as of Friday has killed more than 63,000 people in the US.

But having a treatment could have a profound effect on the global pandemic, especially because health officials have said a vaccine could take anywhere from a year to 18 months to develop.

Fauci said on Thursday that a vaccine could be ready by January.

"We want to go quickly, but we want to make sure it's safe and it's effective,” Fauci said. “I think that is doable if things fall in the right place.”

Fauci also said that production will be speeding up.

“We're going to start ramping up production with the companies involved and you do that at risk, in other words you don't wait until you get an answer before you start manufacturing, you at risk, proactively, start making it, assuming it's going to work."

He continued: “And if it does, then you can scale up and hopefully get to that timeline.”

Fauci also said that the new timeline isn't far from his initial prediction of when a vaccine would be available.

“I was saying in January and February that it would be a year to 18 months, so January is a year,” he said.

At least five large studies are testing remdesivir, which has shown promise against other coronaviruses in the past and in lab tests against the one causing the current pandemic.

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