Gilead Accelerates Production of Experimental Coronavirus Drug
April 04 2020 - 9:50PM
Dow Jones News
By Anna Wilde Mathews and Jonathan D. Rockoff
Gilead Sciences Inc. has ramped up production of its
experimental coronavirus drug, which has seen overwhelming demand
amid a surge in cases around the world.
The drugmaker said Saturday that it now has 1.5 million
individual doses of its drug remdesivir on hand, an amount that
could be enough to supply more than 140,000 patients.
Gilead, which won't charge for the supply, is making the drug
available through clinical trials and special programs that allow
doctors and hospitals to apply for access. The company said it
wouldn't charge for the 1.5 million doses even if remdesivir is
approved to treat Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
The increased supply will help the Foster City, Calif.-based
company satisfy more of the demand from researchers testing the
drug, as well as from patients, doctors and hospitals desperate for
treatments.
"Providing our existing supplies at no charge is the right thing
to do, to facilitate access to patients as quickly as possible and
in recognition of the public emergency posed by this pandemic,"
Gilead Chief Executive Daniel O'Day said in a letter posted on the
company's website.
By October, Gilead aims to produce enough doses of the drug to
provide treatments to more than 500,000 patients, and the company
said it hopes to have enough doses for another 500,000 patients by
the end of 2020.
No drug has been proven to work against Covid-19, the disease
caused by the virus, and none has been approved for such a use. The
lack of proven treatments has prompted patients to try antimalaria
drugs and other drugs suspected of helping derail the virus.
Drugmakers typically make an amount of an experimental drug that
is just enough to supply researchers testing the agent. As requests
from Covid-19 patients surged, however, Gilead ratcheted up
production.
Mr. O'Day said the company had taken several steps to accelerate
manufacturing, including repurposing some company plants that made
other drugs to focus on producing remdesivir. The company was able
to shorten the time needed to make the drug from about a year to
six months, he said.
Gilead, a longtime maker of antivirus drugs, developed
remdesivir to treat Ebola, but it proved less effective than some
other medicines.
While researchers study remdesivir's safety and effectiveness,
Gilead has been providing remdesivir to individual patients, since
many aren't able to enroll in clinical trials that are testing the
drug. But the company has struggled to keep up with all of the
requests.
To improve access, the company said last week, it would have
doctors and hospitals make requests for groups of patients needing
emergency use of the drug. Gilead said it would consider only
individual requests for pregnant women and children.
The company said it has now supplied remdesivir to more than
1,700 patients under its initial program and the revamped program
announced last week.
Write to Anna Wilde Mathews at anna.mathews@wsj.com and Jonathan
D. Rockoff at Jonathan.Rockoff@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 04, 2020 21:35 ET (01:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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