Gilead Opens Access To Experimental Anti-Virus Drug

March 29, 2020 Coronavirus, Medicine

Gilead Sciences CEO Daniel O’Day said in an open letter Saturday the company is expanding access to its experimental anti-coronavirus drug remdesivir to include severely ill COVID-19 patients.

President Trump has called the antiviral drug “promising,” but the results of six clinical trials on this investigational medicine are still being conducted, so its effectiveness the treatment of the novel coronavirus has yet to be proved. The World Health Organization is involved in the tests.

The firm has moved from this “compassionate use” to program to one of “expanded access” because “the system cannot support and process the overwhelming number of applications we have seen with COVID-19,” O’Day said.

BIG WIN: Gilead just backed down.

The company caved under enormous public pressure and withdrew its appalling request for rare disease status on remdesivir.https://t.co/JmGGGouP3u

— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) March 25, 2020