Anti-viral drug remdesivir, which was approved Friday for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration, is expected to be available to treat coronavirus patients as early as this week.
The announcement was made Sunday by Dan O’Day, the CEO of the pharmaceutical company making the drug, Gilead Sciences.
“We intend to get that to patients in the early part of this next week,” O’Day said on CBS’ “Face of the Nation.”
O’Day said his company has donated its entire available supply of remdesivir — totaling roughly 1.5 million vials — to the government, who will disperse the drug across the country on an as-needed basis.
“We did that because we acknowledge and recognize the human suffering, the human need here and want to make sure that nothing gets in the way of this getting to patients,” O’Day said of the donation.
O’Day said the government “will determine which cities are most vulnerable and where the patients are that need this medicine.”
One and half million vials of remdesivir — which has been shown through a federal trial to speed the recovery process of coronavirus patients — can treat anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 people, O’Day said.
