Here’s how much new COVID-19 drug remdesivir will cost per treatment, company says

The first drug shown to help coronavirus patients recover in clinical trials now has a price tag.

Remdesivir — reportedly capable of shortening recovery time by an average of four days — will cost the U.S. government $390 per vial, the drug’s maker, California-based biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, said Monday in a news release.

A typical treatment course requires six vials over five days, equaling $2,340 per patient: a price developed “with the aim of helping as many patients as possible, as quickly as possible and in the most responsible way,” and one that all can afford, according to the company.

In developing countries “where healthcare resources, infrastructure and economics are so different,” the drug will be offered at a discounted price for generic versions, the company said.

Now some are questioning how affordable the drug really is.

Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer rights group, said the drug should cost $1 a day if in a generic form, Bloomberg reported.

Gilead Chief Executive Officer Daniel O’Day told the outlet that was “not a realistic price point.”

Another nonprofit that analyzes the value of drugs in the U.S. said the price depends on its effectiveness and competition with other alternatives.

In one scenario, the drug could cost up to $5,080 per treatment course if it significantly reduces mortality, according to The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review.

Remdesivir could also be sold for as low as $2,520 because of a cheap steroid called dexamethasone that has also been shown to reduce risk of death, the group said.

“As with many other aspects of this pandemic, we are in uncharted territory in pricing remdesivir. Ultimately, we were guided by the need to do things differently,” Gilead said. “As the world continues to reel from the human, social and economic impact of this pandemic, we believe that pricing remdesivir well below value is the right and responsible thing to do.”

Gilead donated 250,000 treatment courses to the U.S. and other countries, but the donation period will come to an end next week, meaning the prices will apply beginning in July, CBS News reported.

Private insurance companies will have to pay more — $520 — per vial of remdesivir, however, “because of the way the U.S. system is set up and the discounts that government healthcare programs expect,” the company said.

Gilead touts the drug’s ability to save hospitals about $12,000 per patient by shortening hospital stays; a study published in May of 1,063 patients from around the world revealed that the drug reduced recovery time from 15 days to 11 days.

The drug is still not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use outside of a hospital setting, Gilead said.

The agency granted remdesivir an Emergency Use Authorization in May, but the order is temporary and “does not take the place of the formal new drug application submission, review and approval process,” the company said.

Gilead is no stranger to backlash

In 2019, the company defended what many called “price-gouging” for its HIV drug Truvada to a House committee, claiming the high cost pays for the research behind its development, the Washington Post reported last year.

In the U.S., Truvada costs between $1,600 and $2,000 a month — or $70 per daily pill — while other countries need only pay a couple of dollars a month, according to the outlet.

“How can Gilead do this?” former House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah E. Cummings asked the company at the hearing, The Post reported. “How can our system allow a company to take a drug treatment that was developed with taxpayer funds and abuse its monopoly to charge such astronomical prices?”

Although there is still room for debate on whether remdesivir’s price is appropriate, Gilead said the “degree of speculation” over its costs are understandable.

“There’s no playbook for how to price a medicine in a pandemic,” O’Day told Stat. “In normal circumstances, we’d have priced this medicine in accordance with value. But we’re not in normal circumstances. This is an extraordinary global situation.”