Redemsivir Still in Shortage, FDA Says Combined With Hydroxychloroquine Is Dangerous

Remdesivir is still in a shortfall with the likelihood of fully running out by the end of June.

According to CBS News, Gilead Sciences, the makers of remdesivir will try to ramp up their production process, but it's still not clear if the drug will be available from June to September. The drug was given emergency authorization last month, and it proved to have positive results as it shaved off the recovery route of a COVID-19 patient to just four days.

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It's to be noted that the pharmaceutical firm will be shipping out their last parcel of the remdesevir. The antiviral drug, however, is not a cure when you get infected with the virus. It nonetheless has been discovered to speed the recovery if COVID-19 patients.

An Expected Upswing From the Pharma Firm

The government federal health agency is in negotiations with Gilead Sciences and is still anticipating the expected availability for this June and moving into July.

Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Robert Kadlec announced that the government has been helping with Gilead's supply chain challenges, such as raw materials and acceleration process, according to Formulary Watch.

Kadlec assured that the pharmaceutical firm has made it clear that they are preparing more than 500,000 treatment courses, which will be made available this coming October. Gilead is also expecting that it will reach the million mark before the year ends.

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Was There an Enough Supply of Remdesivir

A report from U.S. News Hub mentioned that it has directly appropriated 14,907 cases of remdesivir in a five-week timeline. Each container had 40 vials inside. Gilead itself has doled out a figure of about 940,000 vials of the highly-touted drug. In view of that, this distribution was said to cater to more than 120,000 infected patients who were in hospital admission.

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Some hospitals, however, as reported by NPR, had been left out in the cold during the handing out of redemsivir. In conclusion, the hospitals that were prioritized had the most number of cases, and their area severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Hydroxychloroquine and Remdesivir: A Not So Good Combination

In like manner, the FDA recently has also warned health providers about the treatment of hydroxychloroquine to patients who have also been given remdesivir, according to U.S. News. They elucidated that the infusion of the antiviral drug with the former will cut back the capability of remdesivir.

The FDA made it clear that they were not acquainted with any cases which had reduced the activity of remdesivir due to the infusion of hydroxychloroquine. However, they are still in the pursuit of continuing to evaluate any data which is linked to remdesivir.