The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization Friday for remdesivir, a medication researchers believe could treat patients diagnosed with COVID-19.
“We want to thank the collaborators that brought remdesivir to this point and many of our people that have been part of this, in fact, the caregivers,” Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day told reporters Friday.
Distribution of the drug will be handled by the federal government, the order said. Gilead Sciences, the manufacturer of remdesivir, will distribute the medication to government agencies, which will then distribute the medication to hospitals. O’Day added that Gilead is donating 1 million vials of remdesivir.
The announcement comes just one day after Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top government infectious disease expert, said that clinical trials showing that remdesivir cut recovery time for coronavirus patients by four days was “quite good news” but that the data needed further examination.
The authorization does not mean that the drug has been approved by the FDA as a treatment for the coronavirus, as it hasn’t gone through the same rigorous clinical trials as drugs the FDA has approved for other medical issues. Earlier this week, O’Day said he hoped the agency would move “as quickly as they can” to approve remdesivir.
Gilead Sciences also manufactures HIV PrEP medications.
