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Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced Friday that Gilead Sciences’ antiviral drug will produce and deliver a possible treatment for coronavirus.
The multi-year agreement marks one of many external manufacturing efforts to “scale up the range of research treatment for COVID-19,” said Pfizer, who will produce the drug at its McPherson, Kansas facility.
“From the outset, it was clear that no single company or innovation could put an end to the COVID-19 crisis,” said Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer. “Together we are more powerful than alone.”
WHAT IS REMDESIVIR, THE POSSIBLE CORONAVIRUS DRUG OF GILEAD?
Gilead says it has gone into hyperdrive-producing remdesivir, the first treatment that proved to be effective against the highly contagious virus that has infected more than 4.8 million Americans, and killed more than 160,000.
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Gilead hopes to produce more than 2 million treatment courses by the end of the year, and expects to produce “several million more by 2021, if needed,” the company said in an earlier statement.
GILEAD SCIENCES PLANS REGARDING PROGRAMMING OF 2M CORONAVIRUS TREATMENT COURSES BY 2020
Remdesivir, which blocks an enzyme that the virus uses to replicate its genetic material, is one of dozens of treatments being tested and, to date, the most advanced in the process.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PFE | PFIZER INC. | 38.45 | +0.18 | + 0.47% |
| VALID | GILEAD SCIENCES INC. | 69.35 | +0.54 | + 0.78% |
Earlier this week, Johnson & Johnson announced plans to develop and deliver 100 million doses of its SARS-CoV-2 research vaccine to the US in a deal with the government valued at more than $ 1 billion.
Moderna and Novavax, two other companies developing potential vaccines, also reported positive developments in the treatment race.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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