President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that the US government will send Texas hospitals cases of remdesivir as Covid-19 deaths increase.
Trump said during a press briefing in Midland, Texas, that the 500 cases of antiviral drug remdesivir will be enough to treat 3,200 patients as the Lone Star State hit record highs.
The drug has been “very, very successful,” he told his audience.
On Tuesday, Texas registered 200 new deaths, hitting a record-high average. Texas is among the 10 states with record-high average daily new coronavirus deaths on Tuesday. This is based on a seven-day average assessed by CNBC using data from Johns Hopkins University.
According to the latest data from the Texas Department of State Health Services, there are currently over 9,500 patients hospitalized with Covid-19 in Texas hospitals. This is a 62% increase from a month ago.
There are no drugs for Covid-19 yet that has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Remdesivir has reportedly lessened the recovery time of some hospitalized Covid-19 patients.
In May, remdesivir received an emergency use authorization from the FDA, allowing hospitals and doctors to give it to patients hospitalized with Covid-19.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services said on June 29 that there has been a deal that gives the country more than 500,000 treatment courses of the antiviral drug for hospitals through September. The agency said that this represents 100% of Gilead’s predicted production for July and 90% of production for August and September.
Gilead Sciences is selling remdesivir to patients with private insurance in the US for $520 per vial and to federal insurance programs such as Medicare as well as foreign countries for $390 per vial. The company said that most of the patients treated with remdesivir take a five-day treatment course using six vials of remdesivir.
“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 previously said in an open letter.
"Not a cure"
Dr. Scott Gottlieb considered remdesivir as “part of a better toolbox” for dealing with the coronavirus. However, he said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that it’s “not a home run, a cure by any means.”
“It’s not going to be a cure, but it is going to be a drug potentially that if you use it particularly early in the course of the disease … it could reduce their chances of having a really bad outcome,” he said.
According to an article by Lisa M. Jarvis on c&en, remdesivir, an intravenous drug, may be limited to those in severe conditions in hospitals.
“By the end of May, the firm expects to have made roughly 140,000 treatment courses for a 10-day regimen. By increasing both internal capacity and outsourcing, the firm hopes to make an additional 500,000 courses by October, 1 million courses by the end of the year, and, if needed, several million courses in 2021,” Jarvis writes.
Remdesivir was a promising candidate for treating SARS and MERS. Coronaviruses caused these diseases too. Some health authorities in the U.S., China and other parts of the world use remdesivir in hopes that the drug can reduce the time of recovery for COVID-19 patients
