FDA cheers on Gilead­'s remde­sivir with a snap emer­gency OK, giv­ing bio­phar­ma a shot at re­demp­tion

The FDA didn’t leave much time to as­sess the pos­i­tive na­ture of the first cut of da­ta from a con­trolled study of remde­sivir in se­vere­ly af­flict­ed coro­n­avirus cas­es. On Fri­day the agency stamped their ap­proval on Gilead’s drug, which NI­AID di­rec­tor An­tho­ny Fau­ci has al­ready de­ter­mined should be­come the new stan­dard of care in treat­ing hos­pi­tal­ized pa­tients fight­ing off Covid-19.

Then on Sun­day, Gilead CEO Dan O’Day took to “Face the Na­tion” to promise that the first 1.5 mil­lion dos­es of this drug — enough to treat any­where from 100,000 to 200,000 pa­tients — would be rushed, free of charge, to US cities where it is need­ed the most.

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