The government helped the development of this drug that the Gilead Co. will manufacture , which cuts down the time one suffers from the caroinavirus…
The Drug is due out to doctors in hospitals in a few weeks…
The price for treatment is a question mark….
The drug should be available to ANY America that needs treatment , and not as a cost issue…
To make progress, Gilead needed help from U.S. taxpayers. Lots of help. Three federal health agencies were deeply involved in remdesivir’s development every step of the way, providing tens of millions of dollars of government research support. Now that big government role has set up a political showdown over pricing and access.
Despite the heavy subsidies, federal agencies have not asserted patent rights to Gilead’s drug, potentially a blockbuster therapy worth billions of dollars. That means Gilead will have few constraints other than political pressure when it sets a price in coming weeks. Critics are urging the Trump administration to take a more aggressive approach.
“Without direct public investment and tax subsidies, this drug would apparently have remained in the scrapheap of unsuccessful drugs,” Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.), chairman of the House Ways and Means health subcommittee, said earlier this month. Doggett and Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) have asked Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar for a detailed financial accounting of federal support for remdesivir’s discovery and development.
The HIV-prevention advocacy group PrEP4All Collaboration, working with the Technology Law & Policy Clinic at New York University, released an analysis Tuesday that said the government, because it helped cull the drug from hundreds of compounds, probably has a legal right to claim it co-invented remdesivir. It contends government scientists should have been listed as co-inventors on remdesivir patents because of their contributions. It says the Trump administration should be leveraging the government’s involvement to ensure the United States and other countries can get access at a low cost….