Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD)

[mick]

$GILD Should investors be worried based on the results?
Shares of Gilead were down after the company released its latest remdesivir results. And there's good reason for that: There's a lot riding on remdesivir. A lot of the hype surrounding Gilead's stock's been driven by remdesivir. In late April, shares of Gilead soared back to their 52-week highs after the results from the larger study were made available.

Investors see a significant opportunity for a drug that can treat COVID-19, an illness that's infected more than 6 million people around the world. And if Gilead doesn't have a successful treatment option for patients, there may not be enough of a reason to invest in a company that saw revenue growth of just 1.5% in 2019.

There is still hope that the company can deliver growth -- on December 19, Gilead submitted a new drug application for filgotinib, which treats people with rheumatoid arthritis. But that growth will likely pale in comparison to the opportunities remdesivir could create for Gilead if health officials were to use the drug on a wide scale to treat COVID-19 patients.

Unfortunately, it's hard to see that happening without more positive results. While there's still the potential that subsequent studies could show more positive results and give health officials more insight under which circumstances remdesivir works, at this point it's hard to be optimistic given the lackluster results that investors have seen to date. There is still the question of pricing for remdesivir and the company is donating nearly 1 million doses of the drug to U.S. hospitals.