Innovation Pharmaceuticals Inc (IPIX)

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MSN Article: Remdesivir may not cure coronavirus, but it’s on track to make billions for Gilead.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/remdesivir-may-not-cure-coronavirus-but-its-on-track-to-make-billions-for-gilead/ar-BB19z4E5?li=BBnb7Kz

Excerpts only, not the full article are listed below.

From the bedside, he said, benefits of the drug are undetectable. “People are not jumping out of bed and saying, ‘Thanks, you saved my life," said Curtis, a doctor at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center. "We are continuing to use it, because if you look at all the data in total, there probably is some benefit.”

The most conclusive evidence shows it reduces hospital stays from 15 to 11 days but does not significantly reduce the odds of dying of the coronavirus. And advocates are also questioning whether Gilead’s $3,120 price per course of treatment is justified, based on its modest benefits and previous taxpayer investments of $70 million from U.S. taxpayers.

The FDA agreed with the company’s request to start using its Nordic-sounding brand name, Veklury, and the company is on track to make more than $9 billion on the drug in 2020 and 2021, at the $3,120 price endorsed by the Trump administration, according to an estimate by a Credit Suisse investment analyst. Government hospitals pay a discounted rate of about $2,340. The company defended the cost-effectiveness of the drug.

Citing the taxpayer investment in the drug, a bipartisan group of 11 state treasurers said in a Sept. 16 letter to O’Day that Gilead’s price “suggest an opportunistic attempt to remarket an old drug at prices that are disconnected from economic reality.”

The FDA in August expanded its emergency use authorization to apply to any hospitalized patient, based in part on a less rigorous study sponsored by Gilead. That study, which did not compare the drug to a placebo, said people with less-severe covid-19 had better clinical status, such as being released from the hospital or not requiring oxygen, after five days of treatment. A puzzling twist was that patients who received 10 days of treatment were no better than patients not receiving the drug. The study added a sobering qualifier: The results were of “uncertain clinical importance.”

“We don’t have enough tools in our clinical toolbox to fight covid,” said Heather Pierce, senior director for science policy and regulatory counsel at the Association of American Medical Colleges, which represents academic medical centers around the country. She cited flattening demand for remdesivir even as Gilead’s production surge has curbed shortages: “If it prevented people from dying, there would be a different demand.”

Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day said in June the company could have charged more for remdesivir, considering that cutting hospital stays by four days would save hospitals $12,000 on average. But the price tag for a course of treatment triggered outrage among congressional and state government critics who cited a study that said the company could break even by charging less than $1 per vial. Gilead disputed the study and pushed back on criticism of its price.