US buys entire supply of breakthrough virus drug
THE United States has bought up virtually the whole supply of a drug that could shorten the recovery time of coronavirus patients, leaving hardly any for other countries.
Remdesivir, an antiviral drug, is made by biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, based in California.
America has secured more than 500,000 treatment courses through
September. That represents 100 per cent of Gilead’s projected production for July, and 90 per cent for each of the next two months.
Alex Azar, the US health secretary, said: “President Trump has struck an amazing deal to ensure Americans have access to the first authorised therapeutic for Covid-19. To the extent possible, we want to ensure that any American patient who needs remdesivir can get it.”
It came as America’s top infectious disease expert warned Congress the country could see as many as 100,000 new coronavirus cases a day if its current spikes in infections are not contained.
Dr Anthony Fauci, a leading member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, said the resurgence in severe outbreaks of the virus “puts the entire country at risk.”
“We are now having 40,000-plus new cases a day,” Dr Fauci told senators. “I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around. And so I’m very concerned because it could get very bad.” The stark warning came as Dr Robert Redfield, director of the Centres for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) told the hearing that vaccine scepticism among some Americans could affect attempts to contain the pandemic.
The Trump administration aims to have 300million doses of a vaccine by early next year. However, Dr Fauci said “there is no guarantee” a safe and effective vaccine will be available in the near future as he urged Americans to observe social distancing guidelines to contain the virus. Cases in the US have increased by 80 per cent in the past two weeks, according to analysis by The New York Times. The newspaper’s database shows that 35 states have registered an increase in their daily cases over the past 14 days.
The increase has largely been attributed to spikes in the south and west where states had pushed ahead with reopening. Four states – Arizona, California, Florida and Texas – account for about half of the new infections. The surges have led state officials to dramatically reassess their decision to ease lockdown measures. In Arizona, Doug Ducey, the Republican governor, ordered a new shutdown. Los Angeles, where nearly 3,000 new cases were reported on Monday, announced a “hard pause” on plans to reopen entertainment venues.
Meanwhile, the city of Jacksonville in Florida, where Donald Trump plans to accept the Republican nomination in August, introduced an order requiring face masks to be worn where social distancing was not possible.