QUICK READ: Gilead could reap billions from the sales of Remdesivir. Although Remdesivir is the only therapy so far to show a slight impact in helping hospitalized Covid-19 patients a $5000 treatment cost could reward Gilead with tens of millions of dollars in sales.
Let’s not forget that Gilead needed help from U.S. taxpayers. in developing remdesivir’s. The government provided tens of millions of dollars of government research support. The reward is that patients and insurers are going to pay through the nose for only a slightly moderate improvement outcome.
“Without direct public investment and tax subsidies, this drug would apparently have remained in the scrapheap of unsuccessful drugs,” Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.), chairman of the House Ways and Means health subcommittee, said earlier this month. Doggett and Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) have asked Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar for a detailed financial accounting of federal support for remdesivir’s discovery and development.
Via Endpoint News “in a Phase III trial, patients given a 5-day dose of remdesivir were 65% more likely to show “clinical improvement” compared to an arm given standard-of-care. The trial, though, gave a little indication for whether the drug had an impact on key endpoints such as survival or time-to-recovery. And in a surprising twist, a 10-day dosing arm of remdesivir didn’t lead to a statistically significant improvement over standard of care”.
The data “continue to indicate a very marginal clinical benefit, while reinforcing that a benefit is likely more than random noise,” Skorney wrote. “We continue to believe that both the commercial opportunity for Gilead and the macro benefit of remdesivir to society, at large, is very limited.”
Baird’s Brian Skorney
This is what Gilead does. They basically buy drugs or ask for help in research and then price the drug in the stratosphere to appease Wall Street.
According to posts on Glassdoor Gilead’s culture is one of treat employees like dirt and put money first. I thought with new management things would have changed but it seems their first priority and customer is investors not patients. One can only hope that insurers decline this treatment as it’s just not worth the money.
