Who can get drug to treat COVID-19?
Congressman writes it’s like winning lottery
WASHINGTON — A Central Texas congressman is pushing the Trump administration to explain how it plans to dole out the very limited supply of an antiviral drug used to treat the novel coronavirus, saying getting access to the drug so far seems like “winning the lottery.”
The drug, remdesivir, was originally meant to treat Ebola, but the federal government has fast-tracked it after early studies have shown it can help speed recovery from COVID-19. The federal government has said there is only enough available now to treat about 78,000 patients.
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a San Antonio Democrat who chairs the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, wants the Trump administration to explain how it plans to distribute those doses, writing in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar that “distribution of remdesivir seems akin to winning the lottery — a random stroke of luck rather than a medically-informed decision.”
Doggett wants to know how HHS decided which states would get the drug and when and how many doses they would get. He also wants to know how the federal govern
ment is telling states to divvy up those doses to hospitals.
“The need is great in this critical moment and the supply is apparently very limited,” Doggett wrote in the letter with U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat who leads the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee.
“Even though it is neither a cure nor capable of significantly reducing the death rate, remdesivir appears to assist in reducing the recovery period for some who are hospitalized,” they wrote. “Delays in preparation for this pandemic and apparent mishandling of the first distribution of remdesivir have raised concerns about the appropriate allocation of the few available doses.”
The Health and Human Services Department did not respond to a request for comment.