Washington: Gilead’s remdesivir, one of the two drugs proven to work against coronavirus – an entire stock has been bought by US for next three months,”so far, we know for next three months there will be no supplies,” Dr Andrew Hill, senior visiting research fellow at Liverpool University stated.
One month back , India’s government also approved Gilead Sciences Inc’s antiviral drug remdesivir for emergency use for five doses in treating COVID-19 patients.
Notably, Remdesivir is the first drug to show improvement in COVID-19 patients in formal clinical trials and is at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19, which has no approved treatment or vaccine.
“In India, Remdesivir approved on June 1 under emergency use with condition for five dose administration,” the Drugs Controller General of India said.
Gilead said the drug showed modest benefit in patients with moderate COVID-19 given a five-day course, while those who received it for 10 days in the study did not fare as well.
The drug was granted emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the month of May.
Earlier, South Korea approved the drug’s emergency use and said it will cooperate with Gilead for its swift import.