The COVID-19 Response of Gilead Sciences Inc.

In November 2019, a virus turned pandemic outbreak would affect the financial revenue of and give center stage to pharmaceutical companies. Gilead Sciences Inc., “developed the first antiviral drug approved to treat COVID-19.” 

Before the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic, Gilead Sciences Inc. began to examine the effects of their antiviral medicine Veklury on COVID-19, after it showed potential against the treatment of other coronaviruses within preclinical experiments. “In early 2020, the first patient received Veklury for the treatment of COVID-19 through a special regulatory emergency use process, and we prepared for the possibility of rapidly initiating clinical trials to evaluate Veklury as an investigational treatment for COVID-19,” Gilead said. 

In May of 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted permission for the emergency use of Veklury, and by October of that year, the FDA approved the use of Veklury on hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Gilead sold each vial in the US for $520 but donated an entire supply of Veklury for clinical trials in June of 2020. The current cost of a 5-day treatment of Veklury in Canada is $3,122. To take effect each treatment of Veklury should last a minimum of 5 days and a maximum of 10. 

Backlash

In a Fierce Pharma report, Arlene Weintraub said that a new study by the WHO overrode Gilead’s results, which claimed that the drug Veklury cut patient’s recovery time by 31%. In a preliminary study that measured 11,266 COVID-19 patients in 30 countries, the WHO concluded that remdesivir–the antiviral substance within the pharmaceutical drug Veklury–had little to no effect in COVID-19 patients. To measure the effects of the remdesivir substance, the WHO measured “the need for ventilation, the length of hospital stay and overall mortality.” 

In response, Gilead doubted the validity of of the study, calling the sample size heterogenous and the results inconclusive. Furthermore, Gilead released the following statement: “We are concerned that the data from this open label global trial have not undergone the rigorous review required to allow for constructive scientific discussion, particularly given the limitations of the trial design.” 

After then President Donald Trump said he was treated with Veklury for Covid-19– and the FDA expanded the authorization for remdesivir in treatment to include all hospitalized COVID-19 patients, despite the severity of their disease–Gilead projected the antiviral to make a profit of $3.5 billion and dupped its revenue expectation from 23 to 25 billion dollars. 

By the end of 2020, Gilead made a total revenue of $24,689,000 billion and a net profit of $ 123,000 billion. 

Sources

Gilead Sciences Inc. (2022, November 16). COVID-19. Gilead. https://www.gilead.com/purpose/advancing-global-health/covid-19 

Gilead Sciences Inc. (n.d). Frequently Asked Questions on VekluryPricing. Gilead. https://www.gilead.com/-/media/files/pdfs/medicines/covid-19/veklury/veklury-remdesivir-pricing-faq.pdf 

NasdaqGS - NasdaqGS Real Time Price. (2022, February 28). Gilead Sciences Inc. Yahoo Finance. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GILD/financials?p=GILD 

Weintraub, A. (2020, October 16). Gilead's remdesivir has 'little or no effect' on COVID-19 recovery or mortality: WHO. Fierce Pharma. https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/gilead-s-remdesivir-has-little-or-no-effect-covid-19-recovery-or-mortality-who