BREAKING! Remdesivir: Gilead Sets Price At US$2,340 to US$3,120 For Drug That Has No Safety Studies or True Efficacy Except That It Shortens Hospitalization Stays.
Source: Remdesivir and COVID-19 Jun 30, 2020 4 years, 4 months, 3 weeks, 13 hours, 53 minutes ago
Remdesivir: No one is sure yet as to how much certain family members of Trump or the relatives of the US FDA could be making, but its interesting to see that the US FDA under the Trump administration had approved a drug to treat COVID-19 despite the fact there are no true detailed safety studies on the drug and also the fact there is no real efficacy demonstrated except that it shortens hospitalization period of COVID-19 patients. (feeding COVID-19 patients bananas and if that shortens their hospitalization stays will get you US FDA approval for bananas to treat COVID-19 these days in the US under the Trump administration that had earlier promoted and approved the usage of the lethal hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine.)
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Now Gilead, the maker of Remdesivir has officially announced the prices of the drug that the Trump administration approved.
The company says that it will charge US$2,340 for a typical treatment course for people covered by government health programs in the United States and other developed countries and US$3,120 for patients with private insurance.
The amount that patients pay out of pocket depends on insurance, income and other factors.
The price was swiftly criticized; a consumer group called it "an outrage" because of the amount taxpayers invested toward the drug's development.
What is interesting was that when Thailand Medical News contacted generic companies in India who have the means of producing the drug, they said that production of a single dose bottle would not cost even more than US$22!
The treatment courses that the company has donated to the U.S. and other countries will run out in about a few days, and the prices will apply to the drug after that.
In America, federal health officials have allocated the limited supply to states, but that agreement with Gilead will end after September. They said Monday that the government has secured more than 500,000 additional courses that Gilead will produce starting in July to supply to hospitals through September, and stressed that that does not mean the government actually was acquiring that much, just ensuring the availability.
The drug’s's price has been highly anticipated since it became the first medicine have been granted approval by the US FDA under Trump's administration.
Remdesivir given through an IV, interferes with the coronavirus's ability to copy its genetic material as claimed by the company but there are no real studies to back this. In a U.S. government-led study, remdesivir shortened recovery time by 31% 11 days on average versus 15 days for those given just usual care.
It had not improved survival according to preliminary results after two weeks of followup; results after four weeks are expected soon.
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, a nonprofit group that analyzes drug prices, said remdesivir would be cost-effective in a range of $4,580 to $5,080 if it saved lives. But recent news that a cheap steroid called dexamethasone improves survival means remdesivir should be priced much cheaper.
Dr Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic said,"This is a high price for a drug that has
not been shown to reduce mortality
rong>. Given the serious nature of the pandemic, I would prefer that the government take over production and distribute the drug for free. It was developed using significant taxpayer funding."
A lawyer at the consumer group Public Citizen, Peter Maybarduk, called the price "an outrage."
He said, "Remdesivir should be in the public domain" because the drug received at least US$70 million in public funding toward its development.The price puts to rest any notion that drug companies will 'do the right thing' because it is a pandemic."
A health policy expert at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York , Dr Peter Bach told media, "The price might have been fine if the company had demonstrated that the treatment saved lives. It didn't."
Gilead says it will have spent $1 billion on developing and making the drug by the end of this year. Gilead shares rose 64 cents to $75.22 in late-morning trading.
The drug has emergency use authorization in the US thanks to President Trump and his family and Gilead has applied for full approval.
A Jefferies pharmaceuticals analyst Michael Yee wrote to investors that Gilead's price was a bit above what stock brokers were expecting. He said that at that price, analysts expect Gilead to make $525 million on remdesivir sales this year and $2.1 billion next year.
Many upset Americans are saying that bills for treatment of COVID-19 should be sent to the Chinese Government and WHO as the gobal pandemic originated from the China virus and the WHO was so highly incompetent and allowed the virus to spread globally by the Chinese vectors.
For more scams in the pharmaceutical industry on drugs and vaccines for the COVID-19 disease and for more about Remdesivir, keep on logging to Thailand Medical News.
