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by hasperdi 2179 days ago
What this letter did not address is the fact that the US is hoarding almost all of Gilead's Remdesivir in the upcoming few months. Leaving the rest of the world with almost nothing.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/30/us-buys-up-w...

6 comments

Isn’t the welfare of its citizens basically the primary job for any government?

Hopefully now that this is determined as effective the manufacturing can ramp up and the whole world can get access.

Generic versions of Remdesivir are already available in India for $70 (under license from Gilead). I hope other countries ramp up production too.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india-s-hetero-pri...

It's fine. The formulation will get out there, and the world's chemists will figure out how to make it, and then the Indian generics factories will pump it out en masse.

The hard part with drugs is usually finding out if they work. This one is hard to make, but they'll figure it out.

And then each country gets to make the choice for itself of how much it loves IP law and how much it loves human life.

from OP's article:

> In the developing world, where healthcare resources, infrastructure and economics are so different, we have entered into agreements with generic manufacturers to deliver treatment at a substantially lower cost.

I assume this means that:

1. Remdesvir is not that hard to manufacture.

2. Gilead will license the drug to 3rd party factories, so no need to manufacture them in the US.

Surely they patented it so it can be trivially reproduced by others outside the US, right?
I wonder if this will indirectly lead people to start thinking about whether socialized medical systems stifle innovation and make the systems reliant on innovative "capitalist" economies.
Pharmaceuticals is a big part of the UK economy where we have "socialised" health care.
not sure if totally accurate but if it is then it serves the rest of the world right for playing nice with the US while the US screws them over anytime it is convenient
I'm not sure there is much the rest of the world can do given that Gilead is an American corporation.
the rest of the world can do the same. stockpile their own products, e.g. ventilators, masks, etc. then everyone dies, cause you need all the parts for a full cure. anyway, it's more about the attitude of the US. I doubt stockpiling this drug has any consequence on the rest of the world. the just bought the first batches I guess. more will be produced.