Gilead's coronavirus drug remdesivir will cost over $3,000

Gilead.
(Image credit: JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Gilead Sciences, the American pharmaceutical company producing a Food and Drug Administration-approved antiviral drug being used to treat severe cases of COVID-19, had agreed to donate its supply of remdesivir through the end of June, but it's now time to put a price on the potentially game-changing medicine — and it won't be cheap.

In the United States, remdesivir will cost $520 per dose, which amounts to more than $3,000 over the course of a typical coronavirus treatment. While that's a lot of money, CNBC reports the price is actually lower than the $5,000 per course some were expecting. Gilead said remdesivir is being offered at a discount "well below value," noting the pandemic requires they do things differently.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.