By
Godfrey Benjamin
October 29th, 2020
Gilead Sciences (GILD) stock is slightly down after the company set the Remdesivir price for developed countries at $390 per dose. Privately insured patients will be charged $520 per dose.
After rising over 3% in the pre-market, Gilead Sciences Inc (NASDAQ: GILD) stock continued to rise after the market opened on June 29. At the beginning of the trading session, the shares were 2.17% higher to trade around $76.33 with possibilities of continuing in the same trend in the near future. However, at the time of writing, GILD was trading at $74.56 (-0.013%). The rise is being attributed to the long-awaited price announcement for the Gilead Sciences’ COVID-19 drug Remdesivir. The news was made public through an open letter from Daniel O’Day, Chairman and CEO of the company.
Gilead shares have managed to rise slightly over 17% YTD and partially remained stagnant in the past three months. However, with the COVID-19 numbers in the rise by the day, and higher chances of the vaccine being approved globally, the shares might continue scaling higher and possibly set a new ATH.
Price and Other Details about Gilead Sciences’ Remdesivir
According to the letter posted on Gilead’s official webpage, the CEO thoroughly explained the process the company used to come up with the vaccine’s price.
“As with all our actions on Remdesivir, we approached this with the aim of helping as many patients as possible, as quickly as possible and in the most responsible way,” Daniel O’Day said in the letter.
“This has been our compass point throughout, from collaborating to find rapid answers on safety and efficacy, to scaling up manufacturing and donating our supply of Remdesivir through the end of June,” explained he.
He continued to say that the drug that has been clinically proven to significantly aid COVID-19 patients is a great financial saver, as the hospitalized patients spend approximately $12,000.
“To ensure broad and equitable access at a time of urgent global need, we have set a price for governments of developed countries of $390 per vual. Based on current treatment patterns, the vast majority of patients are expected to receive a 5-day treatment course using six vials of Remdesivir, which equates to $2,340 per patient,” the statement read.
However, he added that “in the U.S., the same government price of $390 per vial will apply, but because of the way the U.S system is set up and the discounts that the government healthcare programs expect, the price for U.S. private insurance companies will be $520 per vial.”
The letter further explained that the pricing will be different for developing countries.
