The Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization for Gilead’s remdesivir drug to treat the coronavirus, President Donald Trump announced Friday.
Trump made the announcement in the oval office alongside Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day.
“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,” O’Day told reporters. He added that the company is donating one million vials of remdesivir.
Gilead shares pared losses, but were still down 4% in trading Friday. The stock, which has a market value of about $101 billion, has gained 21% since the start of the year.
The EUA means that remdesivir has not undergone the same level of review as an FDA-approved treatment, according to an FDA fact sheet on the drug.
Earlier in the week, White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said data from a coronavirus drug trial testing Gilead’s drug showed “quite good news” and sets a new standard of care for Covid-19 patients.
Gilead also released preliminary results from its own study earlier this week, showing at least 50% of the patients treated with a five-day dosage of remdesivir improved. The clinical trial involved 397 patients with severe cases of Covid-19. The severe study is “single-arm,” meaning it did not evaluate the drug against a control group of patients who didn’t receive the drug.
President Donald Trump has touted Gilead’s redeliver as a potential treatment for the virus, which has infected more than 3.3 million people worldwide and killed at least 237,000 people, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
