The drug remdesivir has been shown to be effective against more severe covid infections. Around 140,000 doses have so far been consumed all over the world, and now the United States has purchased the entire July production and 90 percent of the August and September productions.
The infectious doctor and professor Anders Sönnerborg think the procedure is remarkable.
- If this is true then this is the first time I've heard of it. It's also about the company, Gilead science, acting from a moral ethical perspective, he says and continues:
- This is partly about pricing, but here we have a unique situation where there should be fair access to this (medicine, ed. Note). There are several countries that have contributed to these studies that have been done, and then it feels rather strange that those countries do not have access to the drug.
"Will not have enough"Anders Sönnerborg has no insight into how much stock Sweden's regions have of remdesivir, but if the US receives the majority of all doses for three months ahead, he does not believe that the medicine will suffice.
- We will not have enough of this medicine if it turns out it is this way. At the same time, I want to emphasize that we do not know what the need will look like in the next three or four months. The pandemic has yet to pass its mark and how great the need will be remains to be seen.
Are there any alternative medicines to use against covid-19?
- There is an opportunity to use a type of cortisone medication that has an effect on very seriously ill people, but it attacks the immune response rather than the virus. There is no drug that attacks the virus except remdesevir.