Gilead Has Treated More Than 1,700 COVID-19 Patients With Remdesivir

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) has made remdesivir, its Ebola-turned-COVID-19 drug, available to more than 1,700 patients through compassionate-use and expanded-access programs, according to an update from Gilead's chairman and CEO, Daniel O'Day, that was posted on the company's website on Saturday.

The number of COVID-19 patients treated with remdesivir is likely to go higher. On Friday, EU regulators recommended expanding access to remdesivir for patients who are unable to partake in one of the nine clinical trials testing remdesivir that are ongoing or in the process of being set up.

Because remdesivir isn't approved to treat any disease -- it was never approved to treat Ebola given the lackluster clinical trial results and the waning Ebola virus outbreak -- there wasn't a warehouse full of the drug nor a manufacturing plant set up for large-scale production.

Source Fool.com