https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/05/26/remdesivir-coronavirus-taxpayers/
To make progress, Gilead needed help from U.S. taxpayers. Lots of help. Three federal health agencies were deeply involved in remdesivir’s development every step of the way, providing tens of millions of dollars of government research support. Now that big government role has set up a political showdown over pricing and access.
Despite the heavy subsidies, federal agencies have not asserted patent rights to Gilead’s drug, potentially a blockbuster therapy worth billions of dollars. That means Gilead will have few constraints other than political pressure when it sets a price in coming weeks. Critics are urging the Trump administration to take a more aggressive approach.
Public Citizen estimates public investment at a minimum of $70 million.
Gilead has acknowledged the large role of government agencies in remdesivir’s development but said the original compound was discovered by Gilead researchers years earlier and therefore the government has no potential patent rights to the drug. It has said it will spend up to $1 billion on remdesivir manufacturing and development in 2020 as it rapidly ramps up production and distribution around the world.
“We are focused on getting this treatment into the hands of as many patients as possible and making sure it is both accessible and affordable to patients in the United States and around the globe,” company spokesman Ryan McKeel said in an email. “We take that responsibility to patients and families affected by covid-19 very seriously and we will work to make sure access is not an issue.
“Gilead researchers invented remdesivir more than a decade ago, identified its broad-spectrum antiviral activity, optimized the formulation of the product and scaled up the manufacturing process,” McKeel said. “Although government funding was used to further characterize remdesivir’s profile after its initial discovery, this did not result in the creation of the underlying intellectual property invented by Gilead.”