By
Bhushan Akolkar
September 23rd, 2022
Gilead has confirmed its capacities to produce Remdesivir in such volumes that will meet global demand. GILD stock is up.
Gilead Sciences Inc (NASDAQ: GILD) has confirmed that it has the capacity to meet the global Remdesivir supply by October. The biopharmaceutical company has seen increased demand for its Remdesivir drug due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, GILD stock is in teh green. At the time of writing, it is up 0.12%, trading at $68.89.
Gilead’s antiretroviral drug Remdesivir, originally developed as a treatment for HIV has been proven to work on COVID-19 patients. The drug shortens the treatment time for hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
“Taking the example of the United States, earlier hospital discharge would result in hospital savings of approximately $12,000 per patient. Even just considering these immediate savings to the healthcare system alone, we can see the potential value that remdesivir provides. This is before we factor in the direct benefit to those patients who may have a shorter stay in the hospital.” the company said in a statement.
Considering the importance of the drug as outlined, different countries have placed demands on it. GILD said it will be able to deliver 2 million treatment doses by the end of the year as it has ramped up production in the past months.
Remdesivir Drug from Gilead Sciences
With the outbreak of COVID-19 which came without preparation by any nation, the fight for a cure has been arduous. While no vaccine has been discovered, several treatment solutions have been discovered and developed. One of these alternatives is Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine but the potentials of these have been marred by politicals interests.
The drug Remdesivir, however, had goodwill from the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of COVID-19. Consequent to this, Gilead sought and obtained orphan drug designation for Remdesivir from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 23, 2020. This became necessary following the confirmation of the potentials of the drug.
This designation was intended to encourage the development of drugs affecting fewer than 200,000 Americans by granting strengthened and extended legal monopoly rights to the manufacturer, along with waivers on taxes and government fees.
Remdesivir was of June 2020 priced at $390 and $520 per vial for the U.S. government and private insurance firms in the U.S. respectively. The recommended dosage is six vials per patient to be taken in six days.
Partnerships Secured by Gilead
Coinspeaker recently reported the partnership Gilead inked with the EU for 30,000 of its Remdesivir drugs. The deal, valued at €63 million ($73.99 million) will be used to treat patients with the most severe cases. EU member states as well as the United Kingdom will get a fair amount of the drug.
Gilead Sciences also has a licensing agreement with five generic drugmakers to produce Remdesivir for 127 countries excluding the United States. The no-royalty deal involves drugmakers Mylan, Cipla, Ferozsons Laboratories, Hetero Labs, and Jubilant Lifesciences and target beneficiaries are low-income countries.
Originally a United States company, The Department of Health and Human Services announced June 29 a deal that gives the U.S. more than 500,000 treatment courses of the antiviral drug for U.S. hospitals through September.
While the world turns to Remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19, the eventual discovery and approval of a vaccine will help bring an end to this COVID-19 nightmare. As of August 7, the disease has affected 19,311,573 people with about 718,618 deaths.
