How much is remdesivir? Gilead Sciences plans to sell remdesivir $390 per vial to developed countries and $3,120 for a US patient with commercial insurance.
Gilead Sciences' pricing plans were announced in preparation for it to start charging for the drug in July. The company has been providing doses to the US government for distribution for free since it was granted emergency use authorization in May.
The drugmaker announced it will offer remdesivir for $390 per vial to governments “of developed countries” worldwide. Meanwhile, the price for American private insurance companies will be at $520 per vial.
Gilead Sciences will ask a lower price for government programs like Medicare and higher for privately insured people.
The company noted that most patients who took remdesivir will get a five-day treatment course using six vials of remdesivir. This would make the government cost $2,340 for patients on the five-day treatment and $3,120 for commercially insured patients.
There is still no Covid-19 cure approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Scientists affirmed the positive impact of using remdesivir in hastening the recovery time of severe patients. Gilead Sciences stressed its price of $390 per vial is “well below” the drug’s value.
“At the level we have priced remdesivir and with government programs in place, along with additional Gilead assistance as needed, we believe all patients will have access,” Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day said in an open letter.
Good news
White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci finds the data on remdesivir as a tool for coronavirus treatment “quite good news.”
During a White House briefing, Dr. Fauci lauded the results of the trial testing of remdesivir as cure for coronavirus patients.
He said that Gilead Sciences’ antiviral drug sets a new standard of care for COVID-19 patients.
Dr. Fauci told reporters that the data manifested a “clear-cut positive effect in diminishing time to recover.”
Moreover, the top health expert said that the average time of recovery for patients taking remdesivir was 11 days. Those in the placebo group had 15 days. He emphasized that the mortality benefit of remdesivir “has not yet reached statistical significance.”
Findings magnified a survival benefit. It has a mortality rate of 8% for the group taking remdesivir against 11.6% for the placebo group. These figures came out of a statement from the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday.
“This will be the standard of care,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said. “When you know a drug works, you have to let people in the placebo group know so they can take it.”
“What it has proven is a drug can block this virus,” he said.
US health officials are gearing up to present the full results of a drug trial held by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases later Wednesday. Meanwhile, Gilead Sciences announced earlier that the study had met its main goal but did not give more details.
Based on the preliminary results of Gilead’s study, at least 50% of the patients who took a five-day dosage of remdesivir improved. The clinical trial examined 397 patients with severe cases of COVID-19. The severe study is “single-arm.” This means it did not evaluate the drug against a control group of patients who did not take the drug.
