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Donald Trump’s drug for infection with the new coronavirus, Remdesivir, may be too expensive to access. The US company that makes Remdesivir, Gilead, will sell the drug directly to US hospitals, not through the Department of Health. This decision could cause an explosion in prices and severe syncope in the buying rhythm.
For 5 months, the Department of Health was in charge of assigning this drug to hospitals. This change is due to the fact that the federal institution has not distributed the drug in a transparent way: either it has reached patients, but not necessarily those in need, or some hospitals have not received enough or have simply been left without this treatment.
Alexandru Rafila: There will be competition between countries
The representative of Romania to the WHO, Alexandru Rafila, quoted by Mediafax, warns that in this case we should start thinking about how to manage ourselves. According to Alexandru Rafila, the treatment schemes provided by the European Commission now include 2,500 patients. But, if the sale of the drug is completely liberalized, based only on who offers more and faster, Alexandru Rafila believes that there will be competition between countries.
“There are already more than 2,500 patients included in the treatment schemes provided by the European Commission, and after the third installment is delivered, we will probably have to start thinking about doing it ourselves. There will be competition between countries. One is to benefit from a centralized mechanism in which the European Union has another negotiating power and that is why I say that the discussions in the direction of this drug must be addressed in time, ”said Alexandru Rafila.
For now, Remdesivir it still reaches Romanian patients. According to Mediafax, 200 doses of Remdesivir arrived at the Matei Balş Institute in Bucharest today.
“We tried to do some separate steps, precisely because we have a lot of patients with moderate or severe forms and we need Remdesivir. (…) And when it happened in the recent past that it was not Remdesivir, we took action anyway and managed to get it out of other units, ”said Adrian Marinescu, infectious disease physician at the Matei Balş Institute.
Editor: Luana Pavaluca
