Army partner Gilead pauses compassionate use of COVID-19 drug

Boston-based Gilead Sciences has temporarily stopped granting patients access to remdesivir, its experimental drug being studied for COVID-19 applications, due to "overwhelming demand," the company said on March 22. It will make exceptions for pregnant women and children younger than 18 years with confirmed COVID-19 and "severe manifestations" of the disease.

The company said in a statement that it is focused on processing previously approved requests, and that it is developing a new system that it says will allow patients to get the drug in a similar timeframe to what it would have taken to work through the requests it has received.

It is unclear how this development might affect the US Army's agreement with Gilead for access to the same drug in warfighters confirmed to have the virus.(Read more here: https://federallabs.org/news/army-partners-with-drug-company-gilead-on-e...)

Remdesivir is being studied in five large clinical trials, two of which could read out results in early April. Up until now, Gilead has made it possible for patients who want the drug to get it through a process called “compassionate use.” To date, the company said, it has provided emergency access to several hundred patients in the United States, Europe, and Japan.

Read more from STAT: https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/22/gilead-suspends-access-to-experiment...

Read the Gilead statement here: https://www.gilead.com/news-and-press/company-statements/gilead-sciences...