Pfizer will manufacture Gilead's emergency coronavirus drug remdesivir to scale up its supply

Remdesivir.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Gilead Sciences' potential coronavirus treatment is getting a supply chain boost.

Pfizer has entered a multi-year agreement with Gilead to manufacture its antiviral drug remdesivir, which has been FDA approved for emergency use to fight coronavirus, the pharmaceutical company announced Friday. The partnership is intended to ramp up production of the intravenous drug.

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Concerns still remain over the price of remdesivir. At $520 per dose, it could cost a patient $3,000 over a typical coronavirus treatment. State attorneys general have sought to enforce a federal patent law that would force Gilead to increase the supply of the drug and lower its price; the partnership with Pfizer will hopefully provide Gilead the bandwidth to do that.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.